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J.  GREGG  LAYNE 


american 


EDITED   BY 


HORACE  E.  SCUDDER. 


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OREGON 

AND  NEIGHBORING  TERRITOR 


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OREGON 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION 


BT 


WILLIAM  BARROWS 


THIRD   EDITION 


BOSTON 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 

New  York:   11  East  Seventeenth  Street 


1885 


Copyright,  1883, 
By  WILLIAM  BARKOWS. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge: 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  0.  Houghton  &  Co. 


Library 

PS 


TO  THE  ONE 

WHO  SUGGESTED  THIS  VOLUME, 

AND 
GAVE  UP  THE  AUTHOR 

TO  ALCOVE  STUDIES  AND  FRONTIER  WANDERINGS  FOR  IT; 

WHO  HAS  BREATHED  THE  HOME  INSPIRATION 
THAT  MAKES  LIFE  A  JOY  AND  WORK  A  DELIGHT : 

TO  MY  WIFE, 

THIS    BOOK    IS     DEDICATED, 
BY 

HER  HUSBAND. 


808208 


THE  AUTHORITIES   ON   THE    STRUGGLE  OF  FIVE 
NATIONS  FOR  OREGON.  i 

l 

[!T  has  seemed  best  to  name  these  in  summary,  in  order  to  avoid  burden- 
ing the  text  with  very  many  references,  and  to  afford  aid  to  any  who  may 
wish  to  study  this  topic  more  at  large.] 

Astor,  John  Jacob,  Letter  of,  to  the  Hon.  J.  Q.  Adams  :  Agree- 
ment for  the  Sale  of  Astoria,  and  Account  of  the  Capture  of 
Astoria,  in  Greenhow's  History  of  Oregon  and  California. 
Appendix  G. 

Bancroft,  George.     History  of  the  United  States. 

Barrow,  Sir  John.  Chronological  History  of  Voyages  into  the 
Arctic  Regions.  London,  1818. 

Belcher,  Edward,  R.  N.,  etc.  Narrative  of  a  Voyage  Round  the 
World.  London,  1843. 

Bent,  Silas.    Gateways  to  the  Pole,  or  Thermal  Paths  to  the 

Pole.     1872. 

•}-   Benton,  T.  H.    Thirty  Years'   View.        From   1820  to   1850. 
1854. 

Brougham,  Lord.  Speech  on  the  Ashburton  Treaty,  or  Treaty 
of  Washington,  April  7,  1843. 

Browne,  Peter  A.,  LL.  D.  Lecture  on  the  Oregon  Territory. 
1843. 

Butler,  Capt.  W.  F.,  F.  R.  G.  S.  Great  Lone  Land.  London, 
1872. 

Calhoun,  John  C.,  Speech  of,  on  the  Treaty  of  Washington,  in 
the  Senate,  August,  1842. 

Carver,  Jonathan.  Travels  throughout  the  Interior  Parts  of 
North  America,  1 766-1 768.  1813. 

Congress.     Congressional   Reports,   House  of   Representatives ; 
Linn's,  June  6,  1838;  Poinsett's,  Secretary  War,  1840;  Pen- 
dleton's,  May  25,  1842 ;  and  Report  of  March  12,  1844. 
Executive  Document  No.  37  of  the  41st  Congress,  3d  Session, 
Senate.    February  9,  1871. 


iv  AUTHORITIES. 

House  Document  No.  38  of  35th  Congress,  1859. 

Journals  of  both  Houses  of  Cougress  and  the  Abridgment  of 

Debates,  for  the  years  covered. 

Message  of  President  J.  Q.  Adams.  With  accompanying  Doc- 
uments. December  28,  1827. 

Papers  relating  to  the  Treaty  of  Washington,  Berlin  Arbitra- 
tion, Foreign  Relations  of  the  United  States.  3d  Session, 
42d  Congress,  1872-73. 

Senate  of  the  United  States  :  Documents,  1837.    On  the  Trans- 
fer of  the  Louisiana  to  the  United  States. 
Territory  of  Oregon.    25th  Congress,  3d  Session  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives.   Report  No.  101.     By  Caleb  Cushing.     Febru- 
ary 16,  1839. 
Cook,  Capt.  James,  F.   R.   S.    Voyage  to  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

Third  Voyage.     Dublin,  1784. 
—   Coxe,  William,  A.  M.    Russian  Discoveries  between  Asia  and 

America.     1780. 

Curtis.    Life  of  Daniel  Webster.     1870. 
Cushing,  Caleb.     Treaty  of  Washington.     1873. 
•f-    De  Smet.     Oregon  Missions. 

Dunn,  John.     History  of  the  Oregon  Territory  and  the  British 

North  American  Fur  Trade.     1845. 

Falconer,  Thomas.  The  Oregon  Question;  or,  A  Statement  of 
the  British  Claims  to  the  Oregon  Territory,  etc.  London, 
1845.  Strictures  on  the  Above.  By  Robert  Greenhow.  His- 
tory of  Oregon  and  California,  pp.  1-7. 

•  Farnham,  Thomas  J.  Travels  in  the  Great  Western  Prairies 
and  Anahuac,  and  Rocky  Mountains,  and  in  the  Oregon  Terri- 
tory. 1843. 

Fitzgerald.  Examination  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company.  Lon- 
don, 1849. 

Fremont,  J.  C.,  Brevet-Captain.  Report  of  the  Exploring  Ex- 
pedition to  Oregon  and  North  California  in  the  years  1843-44. 
Washington,  1845. 

Frobisher,  Martin,  Three  Voyages  of.     Hakluyt  Society.     Voy- 
ages toward  the  Northwest.     London,  1849. 
Gallatin,  Albert,  Letters  of,  on  the  Oregon  Question.    Washing- 
ton, 1846. 

Gayarre,  Charles.  History  of  Louisiana.  The  French  Domina- 
tion. 1854. 


AUTHORITIES.  V 

Gray,  W.  H.    History  of  Oregon  from  1792-1849.    1870. 
•^~    Greeuhow,  Robert.    History  of  Oregon  and  California.     1845. 
Harmon,  D.  W.    Journal  of  Voyages  and  Travels  in  the  Interior 

of  North  America.     1820. 
Hearnc,   Samuel.    Journey   to  the  Northern   Ocean.    London, 

1795. 
-    Hines,   Rev.  Gustavus.     Oregon  :   Its   History,  Condition,  and 

Prospects.     1851. 
4-    Irving,   Washington.     Astoria.     1836.     Rocky   Mountains  and 

Adventures  in  the  Far  West.    From  the  Journal  of  Capt. 

B.  L.  E.  Bonneville.     1837. 

Life  of  George  Washington.     1857. 

Jeffrey.     History  of  the  French  Dominion  in  North  America. 
Kelley,  Hall  J.    Emigration  to  the  Oregon  Territory,  A  Society 

for  Promoting.     Hall  J.  Kelley,  General  Agent.     1831. 
Lewis  and  Clark,  History  of  the  Expedition  of.    By  Paul  Allen, 

1814. 
Lon;r,  S.  H.,  Major.    An  Expedition  from   Pittsburgh  to  the 

Rocky  Mountains,  1819-20,  by  order  of  John  C.  Calhoun,  Sec- 
retary of  War. 
Mackenzie,  Alexander.     Voyages  from  Montreal,  through   the 

Continent  of  North  America  to  the  Frozen  and  Pacific  Oceans. 

London,  1801. 
Martin,  R.  M.    Hudson  Bay  Territories  and  Vancouver's  Island. 

London, 1849. 

Monette,  John  W.,  M.  D.     History  of  the  Discovery  and  Settle- 
ment of  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi.     1846.     Harpers. 
~{-    Parkman,  Francis.     Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New  World  ;  The 
-4-        Jesuits  in  North  America ;  The  Discovery  of  the  Great  West ;  f- 

The  Old  Regime  in  Canada  ;  Count  Frontenac  and  New 
-{-  France  under  Louis  XIV.  ;  History  of  the  Conspiracy  of 
-f-  Pontiac ;  The  Oregon  Trail ;  Prairie  and  Rocky  Mountain 

Life.     1865-1877. 

-f*  Pike,  Major  Z.  M.    Expeditions  to  the  Sources  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, Arkansas,  Kansas,  and  La  Platte.     1807. 
Pilcher.     Narrative  of  Travels  in  the  Missouri,  Columbia,  Assin- 

niboin,  etc.,  1827-29.    A  Document  accompanying  the  Message 

of  President  Jackson,  January  23,  1829. 
Porter,  Robert  E.    The  West:  From  the  Census  of  1880. 
Robinson,  H.  M.    Great  Fur  Land.     1879. 


Vi  AUTHORITIES. 

Selkirk,  Lord.    British  Fur-Trade  in  North  America,  A  Sketch 

of. 
Simpson,  Sir  George,  Governor  in   Chief  of  the  Hudson  Bay 

Company  in  North  America.    Narrative  of  a  journey  Round 

the  World.     London,  1847. 

Small,  Hugh.     Oregon  and  Her  Resources.     1872. 
Townsend,  J.  K.    Narrative  of  a  Journey   across  the  Rocky 

Mountains  to  the  Columbia.     1839. 

Twiss,  Travers,  Professor  of  Political  Economy,  Oxford.     Ore- 
gon Question  Examined.    London,  1846. 
Victor,  Mrs.  F.  F.    River  of  ihe  West.     1871. 
Walker,  Charles  M.     History  of  Athens  County,  Ohio.     1869. 
Wallace,  Edward  J.,  M.  A.     Oregon  Question.    London,  1 846. 
Webster  and  Ashburton.     Correspondence  between  Mr.  Webster 

and  Lord  Ashburton,  on  the  McLeod  Case ;   on  the   Creole 

Case  ;  On  the  Subject  of  Impressment.     1841-42. 
Webster,  Daniel,  Private  Correspondence  of.    Edited  by  Fletcher 

Webster.     1857. 
Wilkeson,  Samuel.    Notes  on  Puget  Sound :  A  Reconnoissance. 

1869. 
Westminster  Review.     The  Last  Great  Monopoly.    July,  1867, 

and  in  Littell,  August  10,  1867,  No.  1210. 
Wyeth,  J.  B.    Oregon  :  or,  A  Short  History  of  a  Long  Journey, 

1833. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

I.  THE  EUROPEAN  POWERS  IN  AMERICA       ...      1 
II.  SPAIN  ENTERS  THE  STRUGGLE  AND  FAILS,    .        .         5 

III.  FRANCE  SELLS  HER  CLAIMS 17 

IV.  RUSSIA  DECLINES  THE  STRUGGLE  .        .        .    •    .       22 
V.  ENGLISH  EXPLORATIONS  AND  AMBITIONS  .        .        .27 

VI.  THE  HUDSON  BAY  COMPANY 33 

VII.  ENGLISH  MONOPOLY  OF  THE  FRONTIER     .  .48 

VIII.  ASTORIA  ;  ITS  FOUNDING  AND  FAILURE         .       .        57 
IX.  FACE  TO  FACE  ;  AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND  .  .64 

X.  AMERICAN  SPEECHES,  ENGLISH  STEEL-TRAPS,  AND 

DIPLOMACY 71 

XI.  WESTERN  MEN  ON  THE  OREGON  TRAIL    .        .        .77 
XII.  THE  GREAT  ENGLISH  MISTAKE       ....       87 

XIII.  FOUR  FLAT-HEAD  INDIANS  IN  ST.  Louis  .       .       .103 

XIV.  "A  QUART  OF  SEED  WHEAT"        .        .  .114 

XV.  A  BRIDAL  TOUR  OF  THIRTY-FIVE  HUNDRED  MILES  .  121 

XVI.  WHITMAN'S  "  OLD  WAGON  " 140 

XVII.  ANXIETY   AND    STRATEGY   OF   THE   HUDSON  BAY 

COMPANY 147 

XVIII.  WHITMAN'S  RIDE 160 

XIX.  OREGON  NOT   IN   THE  TREATY  OF  WEBSTER  AND 

ASHBURTON 179 

XX.  Is  OREGON  WORTH  SAVING? 189 

XXI.  TITLES  TO  OREGON 205 

XXII.  THE  CLAIMS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  TO  OREGON      212 
XXIII.  HISTORY  VINDICATED          ....  .  224 


viii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

XXIV.  Two  HUNDRED  WAGONS  FOR  OREGON       .       .      239 

XXV.  THE  PEOPLE  Discuss  THE  QUESTION      .        .        .  255 

XXVI.  IMMIGRANTS  SETTLE  THE  OREGON  QUESTION    .      263 

XXVII.  "FIFTY-FOUR  FORTY,  OR  FIGHT"  ....  272 

XXVIH.  AT  LAST  A  TREATY 282 

XXIX.  WHAT  DID  THE  TREATY  MEAN  ?     .        .        .        .297 
XXX.  THE  EMPEROR  WILLIAM  AND  ARBITRATION       .      315 

XXXI.  THE  WHITMAN  MASSACRE 320 

XXXII.  THE  OREGON  OF  TO-DAY 330 

XXXIU.  CONCLUSION  .  349 


OREGON : 

THE  STRUGGLE   FOR  POSSESSION. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE    EUROPEAN    POWERS    IN   AMERICA. 

IN  1697,  the  year  of  the  Treaty  of  Ryswick,  Spain 
claimed  as  her  share  of  North  America,  on  the  Atlantic 
coast,  from  Cape  Romaine  on  the  Carolina  shore  a  few 
miles  north  of  Charleston,  due  west  to  the  Mississippi 
River,  and  all  south  of  that  line  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
That  line,  continued  beyond  the  Mississippi,  makes  the 
northern  boundary  of  Louisiana.  In  the  valley  of  the 
lower  Mississippi,  Spain  acknowledged  no  rival,  though 
France  was  then  beginning  to  intrude.  On  the  basis  of 
discovery  by  the  heroic  De  Soto  and  others,  she  claimed 
up  to  the  heads  of  the  Arkansas  and  the  present  famous 
Leadville,  and  westward  to  the  Pacific.  On  that  ocean, 
or  the  South  Sea  as  it  was  then  called,  she  set  up  the 
pretensions  of  sovereignty  from  Panama  to  Nootka 
Sound  on  Vancouver.  These  pretensions  covered  the 
coasts,  harbors,  islands,  and  fisheries,  and  extended  them- 
selves indefinitely  inland,  and  even  over  the  whole  Pacific 
Ocean,  as  then  limited.  These  stupendous  claims  Spain 
based  on  discovery,  under  the  papal  bull  of  Alexander 
VI.  in  1493.  This  bull  or  decree  gave  to  the  govern- 
l 


2        OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

ment  of  the  discoverer  all  newly  discovered  lands  and 
waters.  In  1513  Balboa,  the  Spaniard,  discovered  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  as  he  came  over  the  Isthmus  of  Panama, 
and  so  Spain  came  into  the  ownership  of  that  body  of 
water !  Good  old  times  those  were,  when  kings  thrust 
their  hands  into  the  New  World,  as  children  do  theirs 
into  a  grab-bag  at  a  fair,  and  drew  out  a  river  four 
thousand  miles  long,  or  an  ocean,  or  a  tract  of  wild  land 
ten  or  fifteen  times  the  size  of  England ! 

At  the  Ryswick  partition  of  the  world,  France  held 
good  positions  in  America  for  the  mastery  of  the  con- 
tinent. Beginning  on  the  Mississippi,  where  the  Span- 
ish line  crossed  it,  that  is,  where  Louisiana  and  Arkan- 
sas unite  two  of  their  corners  on  the  Father  of  Waters, 
the  French  claimed  east  on  the  Spanish  boundary,  and 
north  of  it  t£>  the  watershed  between  the  head  streams 
dividing  for  the  Atlantic  and  the  Mississippi.  Their 
claim  was  bounded  by  this  highland  line,  continuing 
north  and  east,  and  still  separating  Atlantic  streams 
from  those  flowing  into  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  St. 
Lawrence.  Where  this  line  reached  the  springs  of  the 
Penobscot  it  followed  its  waters  to  the  ocean.  It  was 
the  proud  thought  of  France,  that  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Penobscot  along  the  entire  seaboard  to  the  un- 
known and  frozen  Arctic,  no  European  power  divided 
that  coast,  and  the  wild  interior  back  of  it,  with  her. 
So  France  claimed  indefinitely  north  to  the  farther  rim 
of  Hudson  Bay,  as  now  known,  and  all  lands  drained 
into  that  Bay,  and  wildly  west  to  the  heads  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  Missouri,  and  thence  down  to  our  two  cor- 
ners of  Louisiana  and  Arkansas.  This  gave  to  France 
even  the  western  parts  of  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  and 
New  York,  and  a  large  northern  portion  of  New  Eng- 


TEE  EUROPEAN  POWERS  IN  AMERICA.  3 

land,  as  we  now  name  those  sections.  Certain  vague 
doubts  hung  over  those  French  claims  in  the  great  north 
land  after  the  convention  of  Ryswick,  but  they  were 
claims  of  little  worth. 

Russia  had  no  possessions  in  North  America  at  the 
date  of  this  survey,  1697.  But  as  Peter  the  Great,  her 
emperor,  had  at  that  time  his  plans  matured  for  gaining 
interests  in  the  New  World  which  afterwards  resulted 
in  Russian  America,  and  as  that  nation  entered  the  list 
of  competitors  for  Oregon,  it  seems  best  here  to  outline 
her  position  on  the  field  of  struggle. 

The  Russians  came  into  possession  on  the  northwest 
coast  of  America  through  their  ardor  in  the  fur  trade. 
Within  a  few  years  after  the  Treaty  of  Ryswick,  the 
Russians  had  subdued  all  Northern  Asia  in  the  interests 
of  this  trade,  and  Siberia  became  the  great  game  preserve 
of  the  empire.  When  once  on  the  Asiatic  shores  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  it  was  natural  and  not  difficult,  in  the 
chase  for  the  sea-otter  and  other  valuable  furs,  to  push 
off  to  the  Aleutian  Islands  and  then  to  the  American 
mainland  of  Alaska.  So  through  the  enterprise  of  his 
widow,  Queen  Catharine,  and  of  his  daughter,  Queen 
Elizabeth,  the  wish  and  vision  of  Peter  the  Great  were 
realized  in  a  commercial  conflict  with  the  Spanish  and 
French  and  English  on  that  coast.  Among  the  distin- 
guished leaders  in  this  Russian  enterprise  was  Bering 
the  Dane,  who,  in  his  third  voyage,  gave  up  his  life  on 
the  desolate  little  granite  island  that  bears  his  name  and 
his  grave.  In  after  years  the  narrow  passage  between 
the  two  continents,  through  which  he  had  twice  sailed 
without  discovering  the  Straits,  but  supposing  himself 
to  be  in  the  broad  Arctic,  was  honored  with  his  name. 

Having  outlined  the   claims  of   these   three  leading 


4        OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

powers  in  North  America  at  the  opening  of  this  narra- 
tive, the  English  possessions  are  obvious  as  the  small 
remainder.  They  constituted  the  long,  narrow  Atlantic 
slope,  extending  from  the  Spanish  Cape  Romaine,  north 
of  Charleston,  to  the  French  bounds  on  the  Penobscot, 
and  inland  up  that  river  and  along  the  watershed  of  the 
Alleghanies  and  of  the  French  claim,  down  to  the  east 
and  west  Spanish  boundary,  and  on  it  to  Cape  Romaine 
again. 

Under  these  claims,  France  and  Spain  held  much  more 
territory  on  this  continent  than  the  entire  area  of  the 
continent  of  Europe ;  an  estimate  of  the  Russian  pos- 
sessions has  been  given  ;  the  narrow  English  belt,  hug- 
ging the  Atlantic,  was  hardly  equal  in  area  to  Missouri. 

Of  course  these  outlines  are  stated  only  approximate- 
ly, and  somewhat  guessingly,  because  of  the  dark  geo- 
graphical ignorance  that  shrouded  North  America  at  the 
opening  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  pretentious 
claims  of  royalty,  of  the  papacy,  and  of  the  rival  favor- 
ites of  the  different  courts,  overlapped  each  other  like 
bogus  mortgages,  and  they  ran  far  and  wide  as  liberally 
as  astronomical  spaces. 

Thus  stood  the  foreign  ownership  of  the  New  World 
at  the  conclusion  of  the  Treaty  of  Ryswick,  1697.  At 
this  date  and  our  starting  point,  England  was  at  her 
minimum  and  France  at  her  maximum  of  claims  in  North 
America,  and  Spain  had  come  down  from  grandiloquent 
assumptions  to  sensible  pretensions. 


CHAPTER  H. 

SPAIN   ENTERS    THE   STRUGGLE    AND    FAILS. 

THE  claims  of  Spain  in  North  America  have  been 
marked  off.  A  notice  of  the  vast  shrinkage  in  her  pre- 
tensions, prior  to  the  Treaty  of  liyswick,  will  prepare 
one  to  trace,  in  this  chapter,  her  weakening  and  final 
departure  from  the  contest  for  Oregon. 

"  To  prevent  collision  between  Christian  princes,  on 
the  4th  of  May,  1493,  Alexander  VI.  published  a  bull  in 
which  he  drew  an  imaginary  line  from  the  north  pole'to 
the  south,  a  hundred  leagues  west  of  the  Azores,  assign- 
ing to  the  Spanish  all  that  lies  west  of  that  boundary, 
while  all  to  the  east  of  it  was  confirmed  to  Portugal."  1 

Since  Spanish  navigators  had  explored  somewhat  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  and  coasts  as  far  as  Newfoundland,  Spain 
claimed,  by  this  papal  authority,  and  under  the  name  of 
Florida,  "  the  whole  sea-coast  as  far  as  Newfoundland 
and  even  to  the  remotest  North.  In  Spanish  geography 
Canada  was  a  part  of  Florida.  Yet  within  that  whole 
extent  not  a  Spanish  fort  was  erected  nor  a  harbor  was 
occupied  nor  one  settlement  was  planned."  And  when 
St.  Augustine,  Florida,  was  founded,  the  bigoted  Philip 
II.  was  proclaimed  monarch  of  all  North  America. 

More  surprising  it  is  to  see  such  pretensions  set  forth 
at  a  much  later  day.  The  archbishop  Loreuzana,  in  his 

i  Bancroft's  JJUtory  of  the  United  States,  Author's  Last  Revision, 
vol.  i.  p.  9. 


6        OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

history  of  New  Spain,  published  in  1770,  at  the  City  of 
Mexico,  says,  "It  is  doubtful  whether  the  country  of  New 
Spain  does  not  border  on  Tartary  and  Greenland,  by  the 
way  of  California  on  the  former,  and  by  New  Mexico 
on  the  latter."  The  bishop  was  poor  in  geography,  and 
was  in  the  error  then  still  lingering,  that  America 
was  made  up  of  big  islands,  extending  west  and  ending 
in  the  East  India  Islands,  and  that  one  could  sail  through, 
somewhere,  from  Newfoundland  to  China. 

When  the  French  began  their  discoveries  and  settle- 
ments in  Canada  and  the  other  northern  provinces,  the 
Spanish  gradually,  but  under  bloody  protests,  withdrew 
their  claims  toward  the  South.  After  the  Jamestown 
colony  was  established,  and  parts  of  New  England  oc- 
cupied, they  consented  to  make  the  southern  boundary 
of -Virginia  the  northern  boundary  of  their  Florida, 
This  was  about  1650,  and  when  the  royal  province  of 
Virginia  had  about  fifteen  thousand  white  inhabitants 
and  three  hundred  negro  slaves. 

Then  followed  the  English  grant  for  the  Carolina 
plantations ;  and  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  that  expelled  so 
many  Protestants  from  France,  furnished  many  colonists 
with  other  adventurers.  The  Spanish  remonstrated 
against  the  encroachments,  but  the  English  would  not 
acknowledge  a  claim  both  unwarranted  and  unused.  At 
length,  about  1690,  the  Spanish  quietly  contracted  the 
limits  of  their  shrinking  Florida,  and  agreed  to  the  line 
already  named,  being  a  little  north  of  Charleston,  and 
running  exactly  west  from  Cape  Romaiue  to  the  Missis- 
sippi River. 

Having  set  bounds,  mutual  and  somewhat  permanent, 
on  the  seaboard  between  themselves  and  the  English,  the 
Spanish  already  began  to  feel  the  encroachments  of  the 


SPAIN  ENTERS  THE  STRUGGLE  AND  FAILS.       7 

French,  down  the  Mississippi  from  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
the  Great  Lakes.  Vague  and  fascinating  rumors  had 
gone  up  from  time  to  time,  among  the  scattered  and 
frozen  settlements  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  about  great 
rivers  that  never  froze  over,  and  plains  and  warm  val- 
leys toward  the  South  Sea  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  As 
early  as  1658  French  fur  traders  had  wintered  on  Lake 
Superior,  and  two  years  later  the  devout  Menard  had 
gone  up  there,  to  a  death  that  he  knew  must  soon  come 
from  the  Indians,  that  he  might  plant  the  Cross  on  the 
barbarous  border.  More  and  more,  trader  and  Jesuit, 
forgetful  of  all  toil  and  danger,  threaded  the  Indian  trails 
to  the  head  waters  of  rivers  that  disappeared  in  the  mys- 
terious southwest.  The  almost  social  waters,  as  if 
talking  of  better  homes  in  more  sunny  climes  to  which 
they  were  hastening,  tempted  these  Indian  merchants 
and  preachers  to  the  bold  venture.  So  with  only  blankets 
and  food  for  a  few  days  they  pushed  their  frail  canoe-, 
into  the  jolly  waters,  saying:  Where  shall  we  land? 
In  the  Sea  of  Virginia?  In  the  South  Sea?  In  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  ?  In  China  ?  In  Cathay  ? 

In  1670  the  spirited  La  Salle,  a  Jesuit  priest  in  France, 
a  fur  trader  and  feudal  colonist  in  Canada,  and  an  ardent 
dreamer  of  the  Straits  of  Anian,  opening  somewhere 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  floated  in  his  birch 
canoe  south  as  far  as  Louisville.  In  1671  St.  Lusson, 
with  his  fifteen  whites,  and  swarming  red  men  of  four- 
teen tribes,  chanted  the  Vexilla  Regis  at  the  Sault  Ste. 
Marie,  the  outlet  of  Lake  Superior,  and  took  possession 
for  Louis  XIV.  of  all  the  country  bounded  by  the  seas 
of  the  north  and  of  the  west  and  of  the  south.  It  was 
a  wonderful  occasion  in  that  deep  interior  wilderness  in 
North  America.  On  that  leafy  morning  in  June,  and 


8        OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

on  an  eminence  at  the  foot  of  the  rapids,  the  civilians  in 
showy  armor  and  the  Jesuits  in  their  robes  surrounded 
the  wooden  cross  and  chanted  and  offered  prayers.  The 
Indians,  crouching  and  gliding  and  gazing  on  all  sides, 
watched  the  pompous  ceremonials  while  a  large  part  of 
North  America  was  made  over  to  Louis  the  Grand.  A 
volley  of  musketry,  a  Vive  le  Roi,  aud  the  yelping  of 
the  savages  closed  the  marvellous  scene.  Mr.  Parkman 
in  his  "  Discovery  of  the  Great  West,"  —  a  captivating 
volume,  where  true  and  pure  history  makes  the  highest 
romance,  tells  the  story  with  fascination.1 

Two  years  later  we  find  Marquette  and  Joliet  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Arkansas  ;  and  in  1 682  La  Salle  appears 
again,  and  now  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  With 
what  daring  and  romance  and  grand  expectations  these 
early  voyageurs  and  the  first  of  white  men  must  have 
glided  into  and  through  those  primeval  solitudes  ! 
Twenty-five  hundred  miles  they  pushed  off  into  the  un- 
known, among  savages  and  wild  beasts.  Now  they  take 
the  broad  stream  midway,  and  now  under  its  dark  forest 
banks.  One  timid  deer  is  shot  from  the  grazing  herd, 
and  no  sound  like  that  has  ever  waked  echoes  in  that 
stillness  of  ages.  The  calm  evening  comes  over  the 
prairies,  and  then  the  cheery  camp-fire,  venison,  vespers 
and  sweet  sleep. 

Shortly  after  the  Treaty  of  Ryswick  the  French 
began  to  occupy,  and  with  energy,  that  portion  of  the 
great  valley  that  was  recognized  as  their  own.  As  early 
as  1705  Kaskaskia  had  become  a  populous  and  happy 
French  post,  and  seven  years  later  it  was  constituted  the 
capital  of  the  Illinois  country,  having  a  population  of 
two  thousand,  a  monastery  and  a  college.  It  was  a 
i  Parkman' s  Discovery  of  the  Great  West,  40-42. 


SPAIN  ENTERS  THE  STRUGGLE  AND  FAILS.        9 

marked  frontier  town,  and  had  the  vicissitudes  of  Indian, 
French,  and  English  wars.  In  1778  Colonel  Clark,  by 
one  of  those  heroic  and  romantic  movements  that  have 
so  signalized  our  frontier  and  stored  it  with  material  for 
an  American  Walter  Scott,  took  possession  of  it  for  the 
young  republic. 

In  1682  La  Salle  spread  French  claims  over  the  lower 
Mississippi,  and  three  years  after  he  annexed  Texas  to 
the  realm  of  his  king,  and  established  a  trading  post  and 
fort  on  Isle  Dauphin,  between  which  and  Quebec  a  lively 
trade  sprang  up.  Thus  early  the  active  and  progressive 
French  opened  a  way  into  the  very  interior  of  indolent 
New  Spain,  and  were  transporting  not  only  peltries  and 
furs,  but  grain  and  flour  and  other  agricultural  products 
down  that  mysterious  river. 

The  same  persistent  discoverers,  the  trader  and  the 
Jesuit,  also  opened  the  Ohio,  Illinois,  Wabash,  and  Kas- 
kaskia.  The  bold  and  far-reaching  plan  was  adopted 
to  connect  the  Great  Lakes  with  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  by 
a  cordon  of  military  posts.  About  1720  the  first  of 
them,  Fort  Chartres,  was  founded  on  the  eastern  bank 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  about  forty-five  miles  below  St. 
Louis.  It  became  the  French  headquarters  for  Upper 
Louisiana,  and  continued  for  a  long  time  their  western 
centre  of  life  and  fashion,  intrigue  and  ambition — the 
Paris  of  the  Great  West.  So  active  were  the  French 
that  in  1730  they  had  planted  one  hundred  and  forty 
families  and  six  hundred  converted  Indians  on  the  Illi- 
nois alone,  and  five  years  later  they  founded  Vincennes 
on  the  Wabash,  as  a  military  and  rallying  centre. 

Such  was  the  colonizing  activity  of  the  French  in 
the  upper  Mississippi,  thus  overshadowing  and  making 
timid  the  Spanish  below.  But  in  Lower  Louisiana  the 


10     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

encroachments  were  still  more  annoying  and  alarming. 
In  1699  D'Iberville  made  a  settlement  near  Ship  Island, 
and  proposed  French  control  over  the  whole  coast  and 
region  from  Pensacola  to  the  Rio  Grande.  He  surveyed 
the  Mississippi  for  about  four  hundred  miles,  to  the 
region  of  Natchez,  and  caused  an  exploration  of  Red 
River  for  a  thousand  miles  from  its  mouth,  and  the 
Arkansas  up  to  Little  Rock,  while  the  Washita  and 
Yazoo  were  not  neglected.  The  Missouri  he  explored 
up  to  the  entrance  of  the  Kansas,  and  the  Mississippi  to 
the  St.  Peter's.  Waters  now  made  familiar  by  steam- 
boats and  crossed  by  railroads  the  light  canoes  and 
pirogues  of  D'Iberville  glided  over,  like  waterfowl,  shoot- 
ing rapids,  making  "  carries,"  and  submitting  to  no  ob- 
stacles. No  white  man  had  ever  before  much  disturbed 
these  hidden  recesses  of  nature. 

In  1710  the  entire  population  of  Lower  Louisiana 
amounted  to  only  three  hundred  and  eighty  souls — a 
small  village  to-day.  The  men  were  ignorant,  indolent, 
and  vicious ;  negro  slaves  and  Indian  girls  did  the  most 
of  the  work,  and  the  loose,  arms-length  government  was 
supported  by  a  hundred  and  seventy-five  soldiers. 

The  Spanish  governor  at  Pensacola  remonstrated 
against  these  French  intrusions,  but  as  his  remonstrance 
was  able  to  do  no  more  it  was  in  vain.  On  the  east  of 
the  Mississippi  the  Perdido  had  been  accepted  by  both 
governments  as  the  eastern  line  of  the  French  and  the 
western  one  of  Florida.  But  on  the  west  of  the  Missis- 
sippi all  claims  to  territory  were  in  a  contested  uncer- 
tainty. While  the  Spanish  claimed  eastward,  across 
Texas,  almost  to  the  Mississippi,  the  French  claimed 
westward  across  the  entire  province  to  the  Rio  Grande. 

Nor  was  the  struggle  between  the  two  foreign  crown 


SPAIN  ENTERS  THE  STRUGGLE  AND  FAILS.     11 

confined  in  that  Indian  wilderness  of  the  New  "World  to 
the  Gulf  coast  and  the  deltas  of  the  lower  valley.  Span- 
ish adventurers  from  New  Mexico  and  the  Santa  Fe 
country  had  ranged  north  and  east,  across  the  upper 
Arkansas,  to  the  Missouri  and  Mississippi,  and  found 
there  also  the  intruding  and  irrepressible  French.  An 
expedition  was  forwarded  to  expel  these  traders  and 
colonists,  but  the  result  was  very  disastrous  to  the  Span- 
ish. After  this  the  French  built  Fort  Orleans  on  an 
island  in  the  Missouri,  above  the  mouth  of  the  Osage. 
In  military  connection  and  about  the  same  time  Fort 
Chartres  was  built,  as  before  mentioned.  The  wonder- 
ful changes  in  the  bed  and  channels  of  the  Mississippi  are 
seen  in  the  fact  that  Fort  Chartres,  originally  on  the 
bank  of  the  river,  was  washed  away  and  then  rebuilt, 
and  of  stone,  far  inland.  The  encroaching  river  fol- 
lowed and  is  undermining  the  new  fort.  For  ten  years, 
ending  about  1750,  the  French  were  active  in  establish- 
ing friendly  relations  with  the  Indians  between  the  Al- 
leghanies  and  the  Missouri,  and  from  the  heads  of  the 
Mississippi  to  Texas.  This  was  a  deep  stroke  of  policy 
and  involved  vast  labor. 

By  all  these  explorations  and  encroachments  the 
French  crowded  the  Spanish  to  the  south  and  west  of 
the  following  line :  From  the  mouth  of  the  Sabine  up 
that  river  to  latitude  thirty-two,  then  due  north  to  the 
Red  River  and  by  it  to  longitude  twenty-three  ;  thence 
north  to  the  Arkansas  and  up  it  to  latitude  forty-two  and 
on  it  west  to  the  Pacific.  This  was  the  boundary,  prac- 
tically, that  the  French  forced  on  the  Spanish,  though 
it  was  not  then  very  formally  or  definitely  agreed  to. 
Indeed,  it  was  one  of  those  singular  treaty  lines,  some- 
times appearing  in  history,  on  which  much  has  beei> 


12     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

settled,  while  they  have  never  been  run.  The  one  in 
question  has  had  a  peculiar  history. 

"When,  in  17  G2,  France  secretly  conveyed  her  western 
portion  of  Louisiana  to  Spain  she  made  this  its  limit  on 
the  southwest.  But  it  was  only  descriptive,  having 
never  been  run  or  traversed  by  either  party.  When 
Spain  reconveyed  the  same  to  France  in  1800,  it  was 
limited  by  the  same  boundaries  and  in  description  only. 
In  1803  France  sold  this  territory,  the  Louisianas,  to  the 
United  States,  "  with  all  its  rights  and  appurtenances  as 
fully  and  in  the  same  manner  as  they  have  been  acquired 
by  the  French  Republic."  To  this  extent,  and  on  a  line 
unruu,  and  not  very  definite,  the  United  States  were  now 
bounded  on  Spanish  territory,  and  for  sixteen  years 
there  was  negotiation,  and  at  times  unpleasant  struggle, 
to  locate  and  run  the  line.  Then,  when,  in  1819,  the 
United  States  purchased  Florida,  an  article  was  inserted 
in  the  treaty  restating  this  line,  but  it  was  drawn  only  by 
diplomats  in  sentences,  and  not  by  engineers  on  the 
ground.  The  treaty  called  for  a  survey,  but  various  de- 
lays prevented  the  setting  of  metes  and  bounds,  till  we 
acquired  New  Mexico  in  1848,  when  the  line  became 
unnecessary,  because  we  became  owners  on  both  sides 
of  it,  and  so  it  has  never  been  run.  It  is  a  singular  fact 
that  this  line  of  three  august  conferences  and  treaties, 
one  war,  and  much  diplomatic  intrigue  and  correspond- 
ence was  never  anything  more  than  imaginary  and  de- 
clared. 

We  have  thus  grouped  the  facts,  that  it  may  be  seen 
in  summary  how  France  crowded  Spain  on  the  south- 
west, and  compelled  a  continuance  of  the  shrinkage  in 
her  boastful  claims  on  the  New  World. 

Now,  it  is  important  to  notice  that  the  old  Spanish 


SPAIN  ENTERS  THE  STRUGGLE  AND  FAILS.     13 

claim  extended  from  Panama,  on  the  Pacific,  to  Prince 
William's  Sound ;  and  of  course  covered  the  Oregon  of 
our  narrative,  that  is,  the  Oregon,  Washington  Territory, 
Idaho,  and  British  Columbia  of  to-day,  up  to  54°  40'. 
According  to  the  decree  of  Pope  Alexander  VI.,  the 
Spanish  had  granted  to  them  exclusive  privileges  in  all 
lands  and  seas  which  they  might  discover  in  the  Pacific. 
On  this  basis  they  founded  the  audacious  claims  of  sov- 
ereignty over  the  American  shores  of  the  Pacific. 

When,  therefore,  the  English,  profiting  by  Cook's 
discoveries,  that  ended  with  his  death  in  1778,  and  by 
the  enterprise  of  others,  sought  to  open  the  fur,  seal, 
whale,  and  other  traffic,  on  the  northwest  coast,  the 
Spanish  government  regarded  the  attempt  as  an  intru- 
sion, and  in  its  anxiety  as  to  the  end  sought  by  its 
rival,  entered  strong  objections.  This  arrogant  claim 
of  Spain  to  all  Pacific  waters  and  coasts  and  islands  near 
to  our  continent  is  well  illustrated  in  the  case  of  the 
American  ship  Columbia.  In  1788  she  left  Boston  for 
trade  in  the  Pacific,  was  damaged,  and  put  into  Juan 
Fernandez  for  repairs,  and  having  been  refitted,  was 
allowed  by  the  Spanish  authorities  there  to  proceed. 
For  this  the  Commandant  was  removed  under  severe  re- 
buke, on  the  ground  that  every  vessel  found  in  seas  be- 
yond Cape  Horn,  without  Spanish  license,  was  to  be 
treated  as  an  enemy,  since  no  nation  had  a  right  to  ter- 
ritory or  trade  that  would  require  the  doubling  of  that 
Cape.  Russia  was  already  on  the  northwest  coast  of 
America,  and  Spain  sought  to  make  Prince  William's 
Sound  the  southern  limit  of  Russia.  This  was  in  1789. 

At  this  time  "  no  settlement,  factory,  or  other  estab- 
lishment whatsoever  had  been  founded  or  attempted,  nor 
had  any  jurisdiction  been  exercised  by  the  authorities  or 


14      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

subjects  of  a  civilized  nation  in  any  part  of  America 
bordering  on  the  Pacific,  between  San  Francisco  and 
Prince  "William's  Sound."  l  It  is  true  that  Spain  led  off 
in  discoveries  on  those  coasts,  and  afterward  she  had, 
jointly  with  England,  France,  and  Russia,  landed  here 
and  there,  and  taken  possession  ceremonially.  But  it 
early  came  to  an  understanding  among  these  nations 
that  no  such  pageant  could  constitute  possession.  That 
could  be  proved  and  maintained  only  by  habitations  and 
residence. 

The  issue  between  Spain  and  England  as  to  sovereign- 
ty on  the  northwest  coast  was  made  at  Nootka  Sound  in 
1789.  Each  nation  then  attempted  to  form  a  settlement 
there.  The  Spanish  captured  the  English  vessels,  and 
this  threw  the  case  into  diplomacy  between  the  two 
courts.  England  informed  the  Spanish  court  that  she 
could  "not  accede  to  the  pretensions  of  absolute  sov- 
ereignty, commerce  and  navigation"  that  were  claimed, 
and  secretly  prepared  to  back  her  protest  by  two  fleets. 
The  Spanish  government  was  informed  that  "  British 
subjects  have  an  indisputable  right  to  the  enjoyment  of 
a  free  and  uninterrupted  navigation,  commerce,  and  fish- 
ing, and  to  the  possession  of  such  establishments  as  they 
should  form,  with  the  consent  of  the  natives  of  the 
country,  not  previously  occupied  by  any  of  the  European 
nations."  The  younger  Pitt,  then  in  his  prime  of  power, 
and  with  all  his  father's  hatred  and  contempt  of  Spain, 
shaped  the  policy  that  ended  in  the  famous  Nootka  Treaty 
of  1790. 

The  question  opened  so  widely  that  France  did  not 
think  it  best  to  remain  quiet ;  and  though  she  seemed  to 
maintain  neutrality  she  took  steps,  at  once,  to  increase 
1  History  of  Oregon  and  California,  by  Robert  Greenhow,  p.  187. 


SPAIN  ENTERS  THE  STRUGGLE  AND  FAILS.     15 

her  navy  to  unusual  proportions.  Under  Louis  XVI. 
Mirabeau  led  this  policy,  and,  by  a  semblance,  assumed 
to  mediate  between  the  two  courts.  The  result  was  the 
Nootka  Treaty,  by  which  England  gained  her  full  com- 
mercial demands.  Five  years  later  Spain,  for  various 
reasons,  informally  and  quietly,  and  without  quitclaim- 
ing her  rights,  withdrew  from  Nootka  Sound,  arid  after- 
ward fixed  the  northern  limit  of  her  claims  at  the  present 
northern  boundary  of  California.  When  she  withdrew 
thus  to  the  southern  limits  of  Oregon  she  could  well  be 
counted  out  as  a  competitor  for  the  Oregon  of  our  story, 
though  she  had  owned  it  from  1763  to  1800. 

Here,  therefore,  we  take  leave  of  Spain  in  the  grand 
game  of  kings  for  that  magnificent  prize  in  the  north- 
west. But  we  cannot  do  it  without  reflecting  on  the 
weak  ambition  and  papal  folly  that  grasped  for  so  much 
while  it  could  hold  so  little.  Spain  once  claimed  from 
Panama,  on  the  Atlantic  side,  to  Newfoundland,  and  on 
the  Pacific  to  Prince  William's  Sound.  At  this  date  in 
our  narrative  all  her  Atlantic  claims  were  dwarfed  to 
eastern  Florida,  and  at  this  date  of  writing  all  her  vast 
interior  and  Pacific  claims  have  gone  out  of  her  hands. 

As  we  look  back  on  this  amazing  collapse  of  the 
Spanish  inflation  in  North  America  the  view  should  not 
surprise  us.  With  a  few  noble  colonial  leaders  the  mass 
of  the  colonists  were  of  the  lower  grades,  and  many  of 
them  from  prisons,  asylums,  and  the  streets.  Any 
country  would  be"  benefited  by  the  outgoing  of  such 
classes,  or  damaged  by  their  incoming.  After  landing 
in  the  wilds  of  America  they  were  more  like  "  dumb, 
driven  cattle "  than  like  citizens.  The  Jesuitism  that 
took  charge  of  their  education  by  no  means  crowded 
on  them  the  printing-press  and  spelling-book;  and 


16      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

priestly  hands  held  back  the  Bible,  though  in  Latin,  and 
religion  was  much  embodied  in  rituals  and  ceremonials. 
There  was  nothing  in  such  a  colonial  system  to  produce 
men  and  women  who  constitute  and  perpetuate  society. 


CHAPTER  III. 

FRANCE    SELLS    HER    CLAIMS. 

FRANCE  was  only  second  to  Spain  in  the  extent  of 
her  inflated  claims  in  the  New  World.  The  treaty  of 
Ryswick  conceded  to  her  all  the  country  whose  waters 
flowed  into  the  Atlantic,  from  the  Penobscot  north  to 
Hudson  Bay.  This  includes  not  only  the  basin  of 
which  that  bay  is  the  reservoir,  but  also  the  basin  of 
the  Great  Lakes,  emptying  through  the  St.  Lawrence. 
Down  the  western  slope  of  the  Hudson  Bay  basin  there 
come  the  Red  River  waters  of  central  Minnesota,  and 
those  of  Lake  Winnipeg,  fed  by  the  Saskatchewan  and 
Assiniboin,  that  spriug  from  the  melting  snows  where 
the  Rocky  Mountains  look  down  on  the  Pacific.  So  far 
west  on  the  rim  of  that  basin  was  the  French  claim 
conceded,  in  the  old  Dutch  palace  of  Ryswick.  There 
was  also  conceded  to  her  all  the  great  western  valley 
which  lies  between  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  whose  drainage  runs  by  New  Orleans, 
omitting  so  much  as  lies  south  of  the  thirty-third  degree 
of  latitude  on  the  east  of  the  Mississippi,  and  so  much 
as  feeds  the  head-springs  of  the  Arkansas  and  territory 
south  of  it.  This  immense  French  domain  in  America 
would  more  than  cover  all  the  map  of  Europe. 

The  peace  of  Ryswick  was  brief.  Wars  soon  followed 
between  the  parties  in  both  the  Old  World  and  the  New, 
and  matters  soon  came  again  to  the  council-table  of 
2 


18      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 
kings.     This  time  it  was  in  1713,  at  Utrecht,  another 

o  '  ' 

Dutch  town,  and  the  prominent  parties  present,  by  their 
ministers,  were  Anne,  queen  of  Great  Britain,  and  Louis 
XIV.  of  France.  France,  once  so  imperious,  had  been 
humbled  by  failure  to  absorb  the  Spanish  in  the  French 
crown,  and  by  the  adverse  issues  of  war  in  North  Amer- 
ica. Moreover,  Louis  was  now  seventy-five  years  old, 
and  the  shadows  of  age  were  falling  across  his  brilliant 
court  of  Versailles.  He  put  his  name  to  the  Treaty  of 
Utrecht,  but  not  with  the  bold,  iron  hand  that  had  throt- 
tled kings  and  pushed  thrones  aside.  The  signature  is 
the  unsteady  scrawl  of  age,  as  when  old  men,  nursed  and 
pillowed  up  on  the  dying  bed,  sign  their  last  will  and 
testament. 

That  signature  gave  back  to  Great  Britain  the  Hud- 
son Bay  basin,  from  rim  to  rim,  Newfoundland,  and 
Nova  Scotia  —  the  poetic  Acadia.  There  and  then,  in 
the  old  halls  of  Utrecht,  France  began  to  give  up  her 
chances  on  the  Pacific  by  yielding  those  immense  re- 
gions on  the  Atlantic.  The  tide  had  turned,  and  now 
it  went  out  as  with  the  rapidity  with  which  it  is  wont  to 
leave  her  former  Bay  of  Fundy. 

Struggles  followed  the  concord  at  Utrecht,  and  they 
were  between  courts  and  cabinets,  prime  ministers  and 
ambassadors,  armies  in  Europe  and  armies  in  the  new 
continent.  The  brilliant  uniform  of  the  European  min- 
gled with  the  feathers  and  paint  and  scalp-lock  of  the 
Indian  along  the  forests  and  rivers  and  lakes  of  our  then 
border  land.  More  and  more  the  destinies  of  battle 
turned  one  way,  till  that  fatal  September  day  on  the 
Plains  of  Abraham,  at  Quebec,  1759.  That  was  the 
Waterloo  for  France  in  North  America  ;  and  in  the  set- 
tlement afterward,  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  1763,  she 


FRANCE  SELLS  HER   CLAIMS.  19 

was  humiliated  to  yield  all  her  possessions  east  of  the 
Mississippi.  That  is,  she  then  lost  the  eastern  slope  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  the  Canadas,  and  New  Brunswick. 
After  much  diplomatic  delay  —  more  than  three  years 
— while  from  time  to  time  the  hostile  negotiators  felt 
for  their  swords  again,  Great  Britain  allowed  France  to 
retain  three  little  islands  off  the  coast  of  Newfoundland 
—  not  the  area  of  two  Yankee  townships  —  where  she 
might  build  fishermen's  huts  and  dry  her  nets.  Only  the 
assignment  of  St.  Helena  to  Napoleon  suggests  so  great 
a  fall  or  equals  so  great  a  humiliation. 

About  one  hundred  days  before  this  painful  transfer 
France  secretly  made  over  to  Spain  all  her  territorial 
claims  on  the  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Under  one  of 
those  terrible  pressures  of  war,  when  sometimes  a  strong 
nation  is  no  more  capable  of  resistance  than  an  iron  ship 
in  an  ice-pack,  she  parted  with  that  half  of  a  grand  em- 
pire. She  feared,  and  probably  foresaw,  that  Great 
Britain  would  finally  take  all,  and  so  put  this  beyond 
the  reach  of  her  grasping  victor. 

In  her  successive  generations  France  never  forgave 
herself  for  losing  the  ancient  Louisiana.  She  chafed 
under  the  memories  of  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  and  she 
watched  to  recover  herself  from  a  step,  forced  and  inev- 
itable, in  the  fickle  fortunes  of  war.  All  through  and 
following  our  Revolution,  while  she  was  friendly,  her 
leading  statesmen  were  alert  and  hopeful  for  chances 
that  would  reinstate  her  in  that  valley.  The  secret  ser- 
vice of  Vergennes,  the  bold  and  almost  defiant  intrigues 
of  Genet,  and  her  gold  freely  used  between  Pittsburg 
and  New  Orleans  as  bribes  to  bring  about  secession,  are 
evidences  of  her  wishes  and  of  her  endeavors. 

Therefore,  it  agreed  well  with  national  ambition,  as 


20      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

well  as  with  the  gigantic  schemes  of  Napoleon,  when  he 
recovered  from  Spain,  in  1800,  the  western  half  of  that 
ancient  Louisiana. 

The  king  of  Spain,  who  owned  this  part  of  old  Louisi- 
ana, married  his  daughter  to  the  poor  Duke  of  Parma, 
and  he  was  not  so  rich  in  territory  as  his  wife  was  proud 
and  ambitious.  Adjoining  their  petty  domain  was  the 
kingdom  of  Tuscany,  owned  by  France.  To  please, 
therefore,  his  spirited  daughter,  now  a  duchess  in  the 
small  Duchy  of  Parma,  the  king  of  Spain  exchanged 
with  Napoleon  Louisiana  for  Tuscany,  and  then  the 
Duchy  of  Parma  and  Tuscany  were  combined  into  the 
Kingdom  of  Etruria  for  the  royal  son-in-law  and  his 
royal  wife.  So,  as  in  so  many  great  matters,  there  was 
a  woman  in  the  case,  and  half  an  empire  in  America  was 
sold  off  to  buy  for  her  a  wedding  present. 

Thus  the  long  cherished  ambition  of  France  was  real- 
ized and  she  again  had  in  the  New  World  more  than  St. 
Pierre  and  the  Great  and  Little  Miquelon  —  her  three 
islands  tethered  off  the  coast  of  the  Continent.  It  was 
the  ambition  of  Napoleon  to  restore  a  grand  New  France 
in  the  recovered  Louisiana.  It  was  to  be  for  France  her 
empire  of  the  West — the  India  of  France,  to  balance 
the  India  of  Great  Britain.  Its  area  and  natural  re- 
sources, and  its  openness  to  the  commercial  world,  were 
commensurate  with  the  daring  wish  and  plans  of  Napo- 
leon. 

He  framed  a  government  for  it,  appointed  a  board  of 
officers,  and  gathered  an  army  and  navy  for  its  escort, 
and  then  waited  a  year  to  evade  the  watchful  eye  of 
England,  and  ship  the  whole  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi. But  the  mistress  of  the  seas  was  too  strong 
and  too  wary  for  him,  and  he  did  not  dare  to  venture. 


FRANCE  SELLS  HER  CLAIMS.  21 

Impatient  of  delay,  suffering  severe  reverses  and  many 
anxieties,  in  the  broadening  wars  of  that  most  eventful 
period,  and  solicitous  how  the  young  France  of  the  West 
might  be  able  to  keep  her  domains,  and  put  on  manly 
years,  especially  if  old  France  should  come  into  adverse 
emergencies,  he  sold  the  province  to  the  United  States. 
In  the  Old  World  trade  Tuscany  and  Louisiana  were 
reckoned  equal,  at  one  hundred  thousand  francs  each, 
but  we  paid  seventy-five  thousand  —  fifteen  millions 
of  dollars,  including  two  and  a  half  millions  of  French 
debt  due  to  Americans  which  the  United  States  assumed. 
It  was  with  reference  to  this  and  earlier  ownerships  of 
Louisiana  by  France  that  De  Tocqueville,  in  his  "  De- 
mocracy in  America,"  made  his  lament  —  the  old  re- 
frain of  La  Belle  France :  "  There  was  a  time  when  we 
also  might  have  created  a  French  nation  in  the  Amer- 
ican wilds,  to  counterbalance  the  influence  of  the  English 
upon  the  destinies  of  the  New  World.  France  formerly 
possessed  a  territory  in  North  America  scarcely  less  ex- 
tensive than  the  whole  of  Europe.  The  three  greatest 
rivers  of  that  continent  then  flowed  within  her  domin- 
ions. .  .  .  Louisburg,  Montmorenci,  Duquesne,  St.  Louis, 
Vincennes,  New  Orleans,  are  words  dear  to  France." 

For  two  and  a  half  years  that  magnificent  region  was 
again  nominally  in  the  hands  of  its  ancient  owner,  and 
for  so  long  a  time  France  was  the  claimant  of  Oregon 
under  the  old  Spanish  title.  As  will  appear  by  and  by, 
the  United  States  claimed  Oregon  under  the  old  Franco- 
Spanish  title,  while  Great  Britain  denied  the  validity  of 
it,  in  the  final  settlement  of  the  Oregon  question.  Here, 
therefore,  in  our  purchase  of  the  Louisianas,  France  dis- 
appears from  the  list  of  competitors  for  that  Pacific 
prize.  Only  three  now  hold  the  course  of  struggle,  — 
Russia,  England,  and  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

RUSSIA    DECLINES    THE    STRUGGLE. 

PETER  the  Great,  shortly  before  his  death  in  1725, 
determined  to  look  up  the  countries  beyond  the  seas, 
that  made  his  eastern  boundaries.  He  knew  that  the 
Spanish  and  French  and  English  had  trading  colonies 
in  those  regions,  and  he  proposed  to  enter  there  as  a 
rival,  if  not  as  an  invader.  His  death  came  too  soon  for 
the  execution  of  his  plan,  but  Catharine,  his  widow  and 
successor,  attempted  the  enterprise,  and  so  dispatched 
that  distinguished  navigator,  Bering,  the  Dane,  on  a 
voyage  of  discovery,  three  years  after  Peter  died. 
Bering  established  the  fact  that  Asia  and  America  are 
separated  by  the  strait  which  now  bears  his  name,  and 
yet,  strange  to  say,  he  twice  passed  through  it  without 
knowing  it  to  be  a  strait,  or  that  the  American  conti- 
nent was  near  to  him.  His  success  led  to  a  second  voy- 
age of  discovery,  1741,  in  which  the  American  shores 
were  brought  to  light,  and  the  name  of  St.  Elias  given 
to  that  eminent  mountain.  After  this  they  ran  about 
among  the  Aleutian  Islands.  At  length  they  sought  a 
return  to  Kamtschatka,  and  after  head  winds,  sickness, 
and  many  casualties,  they  took  to  winter  quarters  on  a 
small  island  eighty  miles  off  that  coast,  where  the  vessel 
was  afterward  wrecked.  Here  the  gallant  and  daring 
man  made  his  grave  with  thirty  of  his  men,  and  history 
has  affixed  his  name  to  the  island,  as  if  a  monument ;  and 
indeed  it  is  but  a  pile  of  granite. 


RUSSIA  DECLINES  THE  STRUGGLE.  23 

The  survivors  of  the  unfortunate  expedition  carried 
home  with  them  choice  furs,  and  made  large  profits  on 
their  sale.  This  led  to  individual  enterprises  in  those 
hard  seas,  and  in  1766  to  the  organization  of  companies 
for  the  Russian  fur  trade.  While,  therefore,  France  had 
been  hastening  through  a  series  of  reverses  to  quit  North 
America,  Russia  was  preparing  to  take  it,  and  she  was 
well  established  on  the  north-west  coast  by  the  time  the 
United  States  were  a  nation. 

Two  years  before  the  century  closed  the  Russian- 
American  Fur  Company  was  formed,  with  exclusive 
rights  of  trapping  and  trading  for  twenty  years  between 
latitude  fifty-five  and  Bering  Strait.  The  Company  soon, 
occupied  the  American  coast  for  a  thousand  miles,  up 
and  down,  and  also  the  Aleutian  archipelago,  with  their 
chief  traders,  sailors,  and  native  helpers. 

Meanwhile  New  Englanders  worked  into  the  same 
region  and  lucrative  trade,  and  ten  years  after  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Russian  Company  the  court  of  St. 
Petersburg  made  formal  remonstrance  to  the  United 
States,  that  Americans  were  furnishing  the  natives  of 
the  northwest  with  firearms  and  ammunition.  In  the 
diplomatic  correspondence  which  followed,  our  minister 
to  that  court,  John  Quincy  Adams,  drew  out  the  fact 
that  this  Russian  Company  set  up  claims  to  the  entire 
coast  and  islands  between  Bering  Strait  and  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia,  and  at  the  same  time  was  extending  its 
trade  and  monopoly  down  the  coast.  In  1812  the  Rus- 
sians obtained  permission  of  the  Spanish  governor  of 
California  to  found  a  trading  post  at  Bodega  Bay,  a  little 
north  of  San  Francisco.  Their  ostensible  object  and 
real  permission  were  to  lay  in  beef  there,  from  the  wild 
cattle,  for  their  northern  posts  and  traders.  In  two  or 


24      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

three  years  they  had  so  multiplied  and  fortified  them- 
selves, that  the  authorities  of  California  remonstrated, 
and  finally  ordered  them  to  leave,  when  the  Russians 
coolly  replied  that  they  had  concluded  to  remain.  They 
did  so,  and  in  1820  established  another  fortified  trading 
house  about  forty  miles  farther  north. 

In  the  following  year,  the  Russian  government  claimed, 
by  public  decree,  all  the  northwest  coast  and  islands 
north  of  latitude  fifty-one,  aud  down  the  Asiatic  coast  as 
low  as  forty-five  degrees  and  fifty  minutes,  and  forbade 
all  foreigners  to  come  within  one  hundred  miles  of  the 
coasts,  except  in  cases  of  extremity.  To  this  bold  claim 
our  Secretary  of  State,  John  Quincy  Adams,  objected 
most  strenuously,  as  infringing  on  the  usages  and  im- 
memorial rights  of  Americans,  and  he  denied,  most  em- 
phatically, that  Russia  had  any  just  claim  on  that  coast 
south  of  the  fifty-fifth  degree.  As  Russia  had  claims 
on  both  the  American  and  Asiatic  coasts  she  claimed  the 
islands  between  as  hi  a  close  sea.  Mr.  Adams  replied 
to  Chevalier  de  Poletica,  the  Russian  minister,  that  an 
ocean  four  thousand  miles  wide  could  hardly  be  regarded 
as  a  "  close  sea,"  and  that  the  Americans  would  continue 
to  exercise  their  ancient  privileges  in  those  northern 
waters.  There  the  correspondence  closed. 

Great  Britain  made  similar  protestations.  The  Amer- 
ican protests  were  emphasized  in  1 823,  by  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  Monroe  doctrine,  so  called.  The  substance 
of  this  noted  doctrine  was  in  these  words :  "  That  the 
American  Continents,  by  the  free  and  independent  con- 
dition which  they  have  assumed  and  maintain,  are  hence- 
forth not  to  be  considered  as  subjects  for  colonization 
by  any  European  power." 

After   much  correspondence  it  was  agreed  between 


RUSSIA  DECLINES  THE  STRUGGLE.  25 

Russia  and  the  United  States,  in  1824,  that  the  United 
States  should  make  no  new  claims  north  of  54°  40',  and 
the  Russians  none  south  of  it.  Russia  also  made  a  sim- 
ilar agreement  with  Great  Britain  the  next  year,  and 
the  two  were  to  be  binding  for  ten  years,  but  with  the 
privilege  of  continued  navigation  and  trade  where  they 
had  been  previously  enjoyed.  When  the  ten  years  ex- 
pired Russia  served  notice  on  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain  of  the  discontinuance  of  their  navigation 
and  trade  north  of  the  agreed  line  of  54°  40'. 

A  compromise  was  effected  between  Russia  and  Great 
Britain  by  a  lease  from  Russia  to  the  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany of  the  coast  and  margin  from  54°  40'  to  Cape  Spen- 
ser, near  58° — that  narrow  strip  of  Alaska  which  now 
lies  between  British  Columbia  and  the  Pacific.  With 
the  United  States  matters  were  finally  adjusted  to  mu- 
tual satisfaction. 

But  England  was  ambitious  to  hold  Oregon  and  Cali- 
fornia ;  and  therefore  those  two  Russian  colonies  in  the 
latter  were  an  annoyance  and  a  check  to  her.  The  Rus- 
sians had  posted  themselves  strongly  at  Bodega,  having 
built  a  stockade,  with  block-houses,  the  two  towers  of 
which  mounted  three  guns  each.  It  had  only  one  gate, 
and  this  was  protected  by  a  brass  nine-pounder.  In 
1836  it  had  three  hundred  men,  besides  sixty  or  more 
Kodiack  Indians.1  It  will  be  noticed  that,  after  the  loose 
and  adventurous  manner  of  those  times,  the  Russians  were 
in  possession  both  north  and  south  of  the  Oregon  of  our 
narrative.  Of  course,  they  were  liable  to  gain  a  footing 
in  it,  by  trade  with  the  natives,  and  by  agriculture. 
They  had  intimated  to  the  United  States  that  they  had 

l  Sir  Edward  Belcher's  Voyages  Round  the  World,  1836-42,  vol. 
i.  313-15. 


26      OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

no  rights  in  California,  while  they  notified  the  Mexican 
government  that  they  had  come  to  stay.  The  English 
accused  the  Russians  of  infringing  treaty  obligations  by 
making  and  holding  settlements  south  of  54°  40',  and 
asked  Mexico  to  expel  them.  Mexico  was  willing  but 
not  able,  and  therefore  asked  for  the  kindly  offices  of 
the  United  States  in  the  matter.  At  our  request  Rus- 
sia withdrew  from  California,  and  relinquished  all  claims 
and  ambitions  south  of  54°  40'.  Russia,  therefore,  was 
counted  out  from  among  the  competitors  for  Oregon. 

We  started  in  our  story  with  seven  European  powers, 
which  might  be  regarded  as  fairly  competitors  for  Ore- 
gon. We  have  seen  them  drop  out,  one  by  one,  as  in 
some  exciting  boat-race.  Now  one  near  the  prize,  vig- 
orous, and  well  posted  on  both  sides  of  it,  withdraws. 
Only  two  remain  for  us  to  watch. 


CHAPTER  V. 

ENGLISH   EXPLORATIONS    AND   AMBITIONS. 

IN  the  last  chapter  we  carried  one  thread  of  our  narra- 
tive ahead  of  time,  in  order  to  dispose  of  one  of  the 
parties  in  the  struggle  —  the  Russians.  Now  we  must  re- 
turn and  bring  up  the  English  to  the  point  where  we 
just  now  left  them,  as  the  only  competitor  with  the 
United  States  for  Oregon. 

In  colony  times  Spain,  France,  and  Great  Britain, 
each  in  turn,  looked  toward  the  Mississippi  Valley,  as  a 
new  seat  of  empire.  Soon  after  the  eastern  half  had 
been  conveyed  to  Great  Britain,  after  her  victory  of 
immeasurable  importance  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham, 
she  began  to  explore  her  new  possessions.  Leading 
and  prominent  among  the  explorers  was  Jonathan  Car- 
ver, a  hard  soldier  in  the  French  and  Indian  wars,  that 
terminated  at  Quebec,  a  rugged  and  daring  pioneer, 
with  a  passion  for  forest  life  and  all  its  wild  adventures 
and  thrilling  incidents.  In  the  late  wars  he  had  become 
inured  to  hardship,  and  he  was  enamored  of  the  fascina- 
tions that  lie  along  an  unexplored  border  of  wilderness. 
Carver  left  Boston  in  1766,  under  the  geographical  delu- 
sion of  the  day,  that  North  America  was  an  archipelago, 
and  that  a  sailing  passage  could  be  found,  extending 
through  to  the  Pacific.  The  leading  purpose  with  him  in 
his  tour  was  to  discover  those  mythical  and  always  reced- 
ing "  Straits  of  Anian,"  as  the  channel  was  called.  His 


28      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

head  was  fired  with  the  vision  of  "  the  discovery  of  a 
northwest  passage,  or  a  communication  between  Hud- 
son Bay  and  the  Pacific  Ocean  —  an  event  so  desirable 
and  which  has  been  so  often  sought  for,  but  without  suc- 
cess." He  returned  in  two  years,  having  explored  no 
farther  than  the  present  limits  of  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and 
Minnesota.  He  claimed  that  he  was  the  first  white  man, 
after  Hennepin,  the  French  missionary,  to  explore  the 
Mississippi,  as  far  up  as  the  falls  of  St.  Anthony.  He 
prophesied  well  of  the  region  as  "  a  country  that  prom- 
ises in  some  future  period  to  be  an  inexhaustible  source  of 
riches  to  the  people  who  shall  be  so  fortunate  as  to  possess 
it."  He  thus  anticipated  Secretary  Seward,  by  about  a 
century,  in  his  prophecy  in  1860,  in  his  speech  at  St. 
Paul :  "  I  now  believe  that  the  ultimate,  last  seat  of  gov- 
ernment on  this  great  continent  will  be  found  somewhere 
within  a  circle  or  radius  not  very  far  from  the  spot  on 
which  I  stand,  at  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Mississippi 
river."  All  this  reads  well  of  wheat  fields  and  empire 
states,  but  the  fancy  is  rich  and  very  enjoyable,  that  sees 
Carver's  merchantmen  under  full  sail  making  their  cross- 
cut through  these  prairies  from  China  to  New  England. 
The  Indians  gave  him  much  information  concerning 
precious  metals  in  the  "  Shining  Mountains,"  as  they 
called  the  Black  Hills ;  and  Carver  is  led  to  say  that 
"  probably  in  future  ages  they  may  be  found  to  contain 
more  riches  in  their  bowels  than  those  of  Indostan  and 
Malabar,  or  than  are  produced  on  the  golden  coast  of 
Guinea ;  nor  will  I  except  even  the  Peruvian  mines." 
He  made  many  trials  to  get  farther  west,  and  when  he 
asked  the  Indians  to  guide  him  to  these  mountains,  they 
replied  that  white  men  could  not  enter  them  and  live. 
So  sadly  true  of  poor  General  Custer  and  his  men ! 


ENGLISH  EXPLORATIONS  AND  AMBITIONS.       29 

Carver,  in  his  narrative,  drew  somewhat  from  his  ob- 
servations, but  much  from  his  memory  of  French  and 
fanciful  narrators.  His  book  was  published  in  London, 
and  had  its  effect,  both  in  England  and  in  this  country ; 
it  fascinated  Great  Britain  with  the  value  of  her  con- 
quest, and  stimulated  new  explorations.1 

At  this  time  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  had  stations 
on  that  inland  sea,  and  it  had  some  belief,  but  more 
doubt,  of  the  existence  of  navigable  waters  between 
Hudson  Bay  and  the  Pacific.  Rumors  had  also  reached 
the  Company  of  a  metal  river  to  the  west  of  the  Bay. 
They  therefore  commissioned  Samuel  Hearne,  one  of 
their  agents,  to  explore  from  the  western  shores  of  the 
Bay  towards  the  Pacific,  for  the  rumored  channel  and 
river.  This  was  the  year  following  the  return  of  Car- 
ver. Hearne  made  three  of  these  excursions  into  the 
northwest,  west,  and  southwest  —  tours  of  a  thousand 
miles  each.  He  discovered  Great  Slave  Lake,  and  iden- 
tified Metal  River  as  the  Coppermine,  which  he  traced 
to  its  mouth.  So  highly  did  the  Lords  Commissioners  of 
the  British  Admiralty  esteem  his  discoveries,  that  they 
kept  them  secret,  as  exceedingly  important,  from  his  re- 
turn in  1772  to  1795. 

Of  course  English  statesmen,  capitalists,  and  navigators 
were  greatly  interested  in  northern  North  America  by 
these  discoveries.  Under  this  stimulus  Cook  was  com- 
missioned in  1776  to  explore  the  north-west  coast,  and 
look  for  any  water  openings  inland  that  might  lead  to 
Hudson  Bay  and,  with  the  consent  of  the  natives,  or 
in  the  absence  of  any  inhabitants,  take  possession  for 
Great  Britain  of  any  country  not  already  claimed  by 

l  Travels  Throughout  the  Interior  Parts  of  North  America,  1766-8. 
By  Jonathan  Carver. 


30      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

European  powers.  The  plan  was  to  make  his  discover- 
ies by  sea  meet  and  close  in  with  those  of  Hearne  by 
land.  But  the  English  Admiralty  were  then  deeply  ig- 
norant? of  the  vast  spaces  and  distances  in  this  country, 
as  many  are,  most  amusingly,  to-day.  Hearne  may  well 
have  made  those  extensive  tours,  and  yet  Cook,  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  not  be  within  a  thousand  miles  of  the  track 
of  the  inland  explorer. 

Thus  early  after  their  expulsion  of  the  French  from 
the  northern  portion  of  the  Continent  the  English  closed 
in  on  it,  by  extending  their  line  of  trading  posts,  or 
"  factories,"  from  Hudson  Bay  and  the  Canadas  west- 
ward. The  tragic  death  of  Cook  at  the  Sandwich  Is- 
lands, in  the  third  year  of  his  enterprise,  terminated,  for 
the  present,  the  extension  of  English  discoveries  and 
possessions  on  the  north-west  coast.  Meanwhile  the 
English  government  was  in  a  desperate  struggle  to  hold 
her  colonies  on  the  Atlantic,  and  had  little  leisure  or 
surplus  force,  or  perhaps  heart,  to  plant  new  ones  on 
the  Pacific,  where  they  might  repeat  rebellion.  Yet 
she  had  obtained  intimations  enough  of  the  value  of  the 
region  beyond  the  Great  Lakes,  and  around  the  sources 
of  the  Mississippi  and  Missouri,  to  make  her  ardent  and 
persistent  for  its  possession. 

The  French  had  furnished  much  information  of  that 
wild  interior.  It  might  be  difficult  to  tell,  sometimes, 
whether  the  religious  zeal  of  the  Jesuit,  or  the  mercan- 
tile spirit  of  the  trader,  led  those  earliest  expeditions  into 
unexplored  lands :  but  one  thing  was  sure  and  fortunate, 
the  religious  partners,  under  convoy  of  the  voyageurs, 
made  good  record  of  what  they  saw,  and  they  were  good 
observers  as  well  as  recorders.  Of  course  this  infor- 
mation spread  by  rumor,  if  not  by  manuscript  and  print, 
and  English  enterprise  used  it. 


ENGLISH  EXPLORATIONS  AND  AMBITIONS.       31 

There  was  also  a  most  valuable  territory  between  the 
Ohio,  the  Mississippi,  and  the  Lakes,  which  Great  Britain 
was  quite  unwilling  to  yield  after  the  wager  of  battle 
went  against  her,  conclusively,  at  Yorktown.  She  re- 
luctantly conceded  independence  to  the  young  republic, 
but  first  insisted  that  its  domain  should  not  extend  be- 
yond the  Ohio  and  its  head  waters.  During  the  nego- 
tiations for  the  treaty  of  peace,  the  British  Commission- 
er, Oswald,  pressed  his  demands,  long  and  arbitrarily, 
for  this  restricting  boundary.  The  American  Commis- 
sioners, Franklin,  Adams,  and  Jay,  resisted,  and  claimed 
that,  as  the  Colonies,  when  dependent,  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  have  territorial  sovereignty  west  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  north  to  the  Great  Lakes,  they  should  have 
the  same  domain  by  their  acknowledged  independence. 
That  grand  section  seemed  too  much  for  the  mother 
country  to  yield,  but  the  commissioners  were  firm,  and  it 
was  finally  agreed  that  the  dividing  line  should  be  a  cen- 
tral one,  from  a  certain  point,  up  the  St.  Lawrence,  and 
through  to  the  Great  Lakes,  and  the  smaller  ones,  to  the 
Lake  of  the  Woods,  and  thence  to  the  head  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  down  it  to  the  Spanish  possessions. 

This  was  a  great  bar  to  the  extension  of  English  su- 
premacy westward,  and  a  sad  rebuff  to  its  ambition  in  that 
direction.  The  report  of  Carver  on  the  northwest  — 
published  in  London  —  was  fresh  and  tantalizing,  and 
this  treaty  boundary  would  not  only  give  over  a  part  of 
that  tempting  region  to  the  young  republic,  but  place 
the  republic  directly  before  the  grand  remainder,  with 
an  open  door  between,  and  no  resident  keepers. 

The  bar  and  the  rebuff  seemed  to  beget  in  Great  Brit- 
ain an  unfriendliness,  if  not  a  lack  of  good  faith,  for  she 
persisted  in  holding  the  posts  of  Oswego,  Niagara,  and 


32      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

Detroit,  and  four  more,  that  were  within  our  lines,  for 
ten  years  after  she  signed  the  treaty  that  gave  them  up. 
They  stood  within  the  territory  that  Oswald  contended 
for,  and  reluctantly  yielded ;  and  appearances  were  that 
the  English  were  waiting  for  some  mishap  to  the  repub- 
lic, for  some  contingency  of  war,  or  for  some  adroit  di- 
plomacy that  would  enable  her  to  recover  that  region  to 
the  crown. 

The  Indian  wars  that  harrassed  the  border  after  the 
Revolution,  and  nearly  to  the  end  of  the  century,  were 
known  to  have  been  instigated  by  English  agents  and 
emissaries  in  the  retained  posts,  and  on  the  Canadian 
borders.  The  object,  as  confessed  by  both  Indian  and 
Englishman,  was  to  keep  emigration  from  the  States 
from  passing  beyond  the  Ohio.  These  agents  encouraged 
the  notion  in  the  Indian  mind,  that  the  proper  and  per- 
manent boundary  between  the  whites  and  the  Indians 
was  the  Ohio,  as  laid  down  in  1768  by  Sir  William  John- 
son, in  the  treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix.  It  was  not  strange 
that  England  should  be  reluctant  to  yield  the  richer 
southern  country,  but  by  the  final  partition  it  only  re- 
mained for  her  to  make  the  most  of  her  Canadas  and  the 
snow  lands  beyond,  and  press  a  broader  and  deeper  ex- 
tension of  them  into  the  dim  and  mysterious  west  — 
the  great  fur  land  of  America.  With  the  frozen  north 
on  one  side  and  the  United  States  on  the  other,  the  only 
chance  for  English  growth  in  America  was  to  lengthen 
her  dominion  into  the  west,  and  make  it  a  long  and  very 
narrow  parallelogram. 

Into  this  wild  region  of  woodland,  river,  and  lake,  and 
of  treeless  wolds,  heaths,  and  downs,  like  South  Ameri- 
can pampas,  or  the  steppes  of  Asiatic  tablelands,  we 
must  now  plunge,  if  we  would  keep  in  hand  the  converg- 
ing threads  of  our  narrative  in  their  western  leading. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   HUDSON   BAY    COMPANY. 

THE  Hudson  Bay  Company  was  chartered  by  Charles 
II.  on  the  16th  of  May,  1670.  The  original  corporators 
were  eighteen,  headed  by  Prince  Rupert,  and  hence  the 
old  name  of  Rupert's  Land  once  given  to  that  region. 
The  first  object  of  the  Company,  as  named  in  the  charter 
was,  "  the  discovery  of  a  new  passage  into  the  South  Sea  " 
— the  Pacific  Ocean.  During  its  first  century  the  Com- 
pany had  done  something  in  the  line  of  geographical 
discoveries  in  the  northwestern  parts  of  North  America, 
and  were  growing  hopeless  of  an  inland  channel  to  the 
Pacific. 

As  early  as  1778  the  celebrated  Frobisher  and  others 
had  established  a  trading-post  or  "factory"  on  Lake 
Athabasca,  about  twelve  hundred  miles  from  Lake  Su- 
perior. Ten  years  later  it  was  abandoned  and  Fort 
Chipewayan  was  built  as  its  substitute,  on  the  southwest 
shore  of  the  same  water.  From  this  fort  Sir  Alexander 
Mackenzie  made  an  expedition  to  the  Arctic  and  back, 
following  the  river  which  now  bears  his  name.  This  was 
in  the  warm  season  of  1789,  and  was  accomplished  in 
one  hundred  and  two  days.  Three  years  later,  and  in 
the  autumn,  he  started  with  a  purpose  to  explore  a  route 
to  the  South  Sea,  the  Pacific.  From  Lake  Athabasca 
he  went  up  Peace  River,  to  its  head  in  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  In  that  dreary  solitude,  so  far  from  this 
3 


34      OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

live  and  warm  world,  he  made  his  winter  quarters, 
where  he  lay  with  his  ten  men,  snow-bound,  till  May. 
How  that  great  fur-trader  must  have  revelled  in  some 
of  those  mountain  scenes  !  On  one  occasion  he  says  : 
"  In  some  places  the  beavers  had  cut  down  several  acres 
of  large  poplars."  A  few  Indians  were  found  on  the 
line  of  travel.  "  They  had  heard,  indeed,  of  white  men, 
but  this  was  the  first  time  that  they  had  ever  seen  a 
human  being  of  a  complexion  different  from  their  own." 
We  could  hope  that  these  first  white  men  did  not  begin 
to  "  civilize  "  them  as  they  did  the  poor  natives  whom 
they  found  on  the  Mackenzie  four  years  before.  "  We 
made  them  smoke,  though  it  was  evident  that  they  did 
not  know  the  use  of  tobacco.  We  likewise  supplied  them 
with  grog,  but  I  am  disposed  to  think  that  they  accepted 
our  civilities  rather  from  fear  than  inclination." 

A  memorable  and  unprecedented  sight  met  their  eyes 
in  June  of  this  year,  1793.  They  came  to  the  divide, 
and  saw  the  waters  separating,  some  for  the  Atlantic 
and  some  for  the  Pacific.  Never  before  had  white  men 
seen  streams  running  from  the  crown  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  to  the  great  western  ocean.  In  July  they 
came  in  sight  of  the  sea,  and  were  soon  on  its  shores. 
There,  on  a  bold  rock  looking  off  toward  Asia,  this  dar- 
ing explorer  painted  in  vermilion  these  words  :  "  Alex- 
ander Mackenzie,  from  Canada  by  land,  the  twenty- 
second  of  July,  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  ninety- 
three."  This  was  the  first  expedition  of  white  men 
across  the  continent  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  If  we  con- 
nect this  inscription,  in  a  historical  comprehensiveness, 
with  explorations  for  the  Straits  of  Anian,  and  with  the 
British  fur  trade  in  North  America,  and  with  the  discus- 
sions and  conclusion  of  the  Oregon  question,  it  will  be 


THE  HUDSON  BAY  COMPANY.  35 

found  that  few  sentences  written  in  America  were  more 
significant  and  full  of  consequence,  and  worthy  to  be 
put  in  rock.1 

The  dates  of  these  expeditions  of  Mackenzie  are  sig- 
nificant. We  have  noticed  that  the  treaty  closing  the 
Revolution  left  to  the  English  only  the  wild  countries 
north  of  the  United  States.  This  was  in  1783.  Now 
within  ten  years  they  had  pressed  exploration  and  oc- 
cupation to  the  Pacific  in  the  latitude  of  their  Atlantic 
possessions. 

This  Mackenzie  was  a  man  of  remarkable  power,  and 
he  had  few  equals,  if  even  one,  in  shaping  British  inter- 
ests in  North  America  to  their  highest  attainment.  He 
soon  foresaw,  in  his  Pacific  and  Arctic  expeditions,  what 
advantages  could  be  made  to  come  from  them,  and  he 
at  once  recommended  the  union  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
and  Northwest  fur  companies  —  for  a  long  time  fierce 
and  even  bloody  rivals  —  a  line  of  commerce  between 
Canada  and  the  Pacific,  overland,  and  a  permit  from 
the  East  India  Company  for  trade  direct  between  both 
India  and  China  and  the  northwest  coast  of  America. 
That  trade,  he  suggests,  is  now  "  left  to  the  adventurers 
of  the  United  States,  acting  without  regularity  or  capital, 
or  the  desire  of  conciliating  future  confidence,  and  look- 
ing only  to  the  interest  of  the  moment."  These  sugges- 

1  In  the  return  of  the  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition,  the  Clark  divis- 
ion came  down  the  Yellowstone.  Twenty  miles  or  so  above  the 
mouth  of  the  Big  Horn  stands  a  mass  of  yellow  sandstone  an  acre  in 
base  and  four  hundred  feet  high,  called  Pompey's  Pillar.  About  half 
way  up  is  cut  this  inscription :  — 

WM.  CLARK, 
July  25, 1806. 

It  has  more  to  do  with  the  Republic .  than  Mackenzie's,  and  is  closely 
associated  with  the  signatures  on  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 


86       OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

tions  were  generally  and  promptly  adopted  by  the  Eng- 
lish government  and  by  the  Hudson  Bay  Company. 

The  point  reached  by  Mackenzie  on  the  Pacific  is 
within  the  present  limits  of  British  Columbia  on  that 
coast  (53°  21'),  and  it  was  the  first  real,  though  unde- 
signed step  toward  the  occupation  of  Oregon  by  Great 
Britain.  That  government  was  feeling  its  way,  daring- 
ly and  blindly,  for  all  territory  it  might  obtain,  and,  in 
1793,  came  thus  near  the  outlying  region  which  after- 
wards became  the  coveted  prize  of  our  narrative. 

The  Hudson  Bay  Company  was  the  most  formidable 
obstacle  which  lay  between  the  United  States  and  the 
final  confirmation  of  her  right  to  Oregon.  It  contested, 
persistently,  every  advance  of  the  Republic  in  that  direc- 
tion, and  it  was  the  undelegated  agent  and  very  embodi- 
ment of  Great  Britain  in  North  America.  It  will,  there- 
fore, aid  much  to  make  a  brief  survey  of  this  Company. 

Its  two  objects,  as  set  forth  in  its  charter,  were  "  for 
the  discovery  of  a  new  passage  into  the  South  Sea,  and 
for  the  finding  of  some  trade  for  furs,  minerals,  and 
other  considerable  commodities."  It  may  well  be  sus- 
pected that  the  first  was  the  face  and  the  second  the 
soul  of  the  charter,  which  grants  to  the  Company  the 
exclusive  right  of  the  "  trade  and  commerce  of  all  those 
seas,  straits,  and  bays,  rivers,  lakes,  creeks,  and  sounds, 
in  whatsoever  latitude  they  shall  be,  that  lie  within  the 
entrance  of  the  straits  commonly  called  Hudson  Straits," 
of  all  lands  bordering  them  not  under  any  other  civilized 
government.  This  covered  all  territory  within  that  im- 
mense basin  from  rim  to  rim,  one  edge  dipping  into  the 
Atlantic  and  the  other  looking  into  the  Pacific.  Through 
this  vast  extent  the  Company  was  made,  for  "  all  time 
hereafter,  capable  in  law,  to  have,  purchase,  receive, 


THE  HUDSON  BAT  COMPANY.  37 

possess,  enjoy,  and  retain  lands,  rents,  privileges,  liber- 
ties, jurisdiction,  franchise,  and  hereditaments  of  what 
kind,  nature,  or  quality  soever  they  be,  to  them  and 
their  successors."  The  company  held  that  region  as  a 
man  holds  his  farm,  or  as  the  great  bulk  of  real  estate 
in  England  is  now  held.  They  could  legislate  over  and 
govern  it,  bound  only  by  the  tenor  and  spirit  of  English 
!aw,  and  make  war  and  peace  within  it ;  and  all  persons 
outside  the  Company  could  be  forbidden  to  "  visit,  haunt, 
frequent,  trade,  traffic,  or  adventure  "  therein.  For  all 
this,  and  as  a  confession  of  allegiance  to  the  crown  as  a 
dependent  colony  and  province,  they  were  to  pay  an- 
nually as  rent "  two  elks  and  two  black  beavers."  Cheap 
rent  that,  especially  since  the  king  or  his  agent  must  col- 
lect it  on  the  ground  of  the  Company.  To  dwell  in  the 
territory  or  even  to  go  across  it  would  be  as  really  a  tres- 
pass as  if  it  were  done  on  the  lawn  of  a  private  gentle- 
man in  Middlesex  county,  England. 

Such  were  the  chartered  rights  of  a  monopoly  that 
growing  bolder  and  more  grasping  became  at  last  conti- 
nental in  sweep,  irresistible  in  power,  and  inexorable  in 
spirit.  In  1821  the  crown  granted  to  this  and  the 
Northwest  Company  united,  and  for  a  term  of  twenty- 
one  years,  the  exclusive  right  to  trade  with  all  Indians 
in  British  North  America,  north  and  west  of  the  United 
States,  and  not  included  in  the  first  charter.  This  grant- 
ed only  trade,  not  ownership  in  the  soil.  Thus,  while 
the  chartered  territory  was  imperial,  it  grew,  by  granted 
monopoly  of  trade,  to  be  continental.  By  degrees  the 
trappers  and  traders  went  over  the  rim  of  the  Hudson 
basin,  till  they  reached  the  Arctic  seas  along  the  outlets 
of  the  Coppermine  and  the  Mackenzie.  They  set  beaver 
traps  on  the  Yukon  and  Fraser  rivers,  around  the  Ath- 


38       OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

abasca,  Slave,  and  Bear  Lakes,  and  on  the  heads  of  the 
Columbia.  From  the  adjacent  Pacific  shores  they  lined 
their  treasury  with  the  soft  coats  of  the  fur  seal  and  the 
sea-otter.  They  were  the  pioneers  of  this  traffic,  and 
pressed  this  monopoly  of  fur  on  the  sources,  not  only  of 
the  Mississippi  and  Missouri,  but  down  into  the  Salt 
Lake  basin  of  modern  Utah.  What  minor  and  rival 
companies  stood  in  the  way  they  bought  in,  or  crushed 
by  underselling  to  the  Indians.  Individual  enterprise 
in  the  fur  trade,  from  Newfoundland  to  Vancouver,  and 
from  the  head  of  the  Yellowstone  to  the  mouths  of  the 
Mackenzie,  was  at  their  mercy.  They  practically  con- 
trolled the  introduction  of  supplies  and  the  outgoing  of 
furs  and  peltries  from  all  the  immense  region  between 
those  four  points. 

Within  the  Canadas  and  the  other  Provinces  they 
held  the  Indian  and  the  European  equally  at  bay,  while 
within  all  this  vast  unorganized  wilderness,  their  hand 
over  red  and  white  man  was  absolute.  At  first  the  Com- 
pany could  govern  as  it  pleased,  and  was  autocratic  and 
irresponsible.  By  additional  legislation  in  1803,  the 
civil  and  criminal  government  of  the  Canadas  was  made 
to  follow  the  Company  into  lands  outside  their  first 
charter  commonly  called  Indian  Countries.  The  Gov- 
ernor of  Lower  Canada  had  the  appointing  power  of  of- 
ficials within  those  countries.  But  he  did  not  send  in 
special  men  ;  he  appointed  those  connected  with  the 
Company  and  on  the  ground.  The  Company,  therefore, 
had  the  administration  in  those  outside  districts  in  its  own 
hands.  Thus  the  commercial  life  of  the  Canadas  was  so 
dependent  on  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  that  the  gov- 
ernment could  be  counted  on  to  promote  the  wishes  of 
the  Company.  In  brief,  the  government  of  British 


THE  HUDSON  BAY  COMPANY.  39 

America  was  practically  the  Hudson  Bay  Company, 
and  for  all  the  privilege  and  monopoly  which  it  enjoyed 
without  seeming  to  demand  it,  there  was  an  annual  pay- 
ment it'  called  for  of  "  two  elks  and  two  black  beavers." 

This  Company  thus  became  a  powerful  organization. 
It  had  no  rival  to  share  the  field,  or  waste  the  profits  in 
litigation,  or  in  bloody  feuds  beyond  the  region  of  law. 
It  extended  its  lines,  multiplied  its  posts  and  agents,  sys- 
tematized communication  through  the  immense  hunting 
grounds,  economized  time  and  funds  by  increased  ex- 
pedition, made  many  of  its  factories  really  fortifications, 
and  so  put  the  whole  northern  interior  under  British 
rule,  and  yet  without  a  soldier.  Rivers,  lakes,  mount- 
ains, and  prairies  were  covered  by  its  agents  and  trap- 
pers. The  white  and  the  red  man  were  on  most  friendly 
terms,  and  the  birch  canoe  and  the  pirogue  were  seen 
carrying,  in  mixed  company,  both  races,  and,  what  was 
more,  their  mixed  progeny. 

The  extent  of  territory  under  this  Company  seems 
almost  fabulous.  It  was  one-third  larger  than  all 
Europe  ;  it  was  larger  than  the  United  States  of  to-day, 
Alaska  included,  by  half  a  million  of  square  miles. 
From  the  American  headquarters  at  Montreal  to  the 
post  on  Vancouver  was  a  distance  of  twenty-five  hun- 
dred miles ;  to  Fort  Selkirk  on  the  Yukon,  or  to  the  one 
on  Great  Bear  Lake,  it  was  three  thousand  miles,  and  it 
was  still  farther  to  the  rich  fur  seal  and  sea-otter  on  the 
tide  waters  of  the  Mackenzie.  James  Bay  and  the  Red 
River  at  Winnipeg  seem  near  to  Montreal  in  compari- 
son. These  distances  would  compare  well  with  air-line 
routes  from  Washington  to  Dublin,  or  Gibraltar,  or 
Quito.  This  power,  so  extensive  and  monopolizing  the 
American  side  of  the  British  throne  —  was  reaching  out 
and  preparing  to  enfold  Oregon. 


40       OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

One  contemplates  this  power  with  awe  and  fear,  when 
he  regards  the  even  motion  and  solemn  silence  and  un- 
varying sameness  with  which  it  has  done  its  work 
through  that  dreary  animal  country.  It  has  been  said 
that  a  hundred  years  has  not  changed  its  bills  of  goods 
ordered  from  London.  The  Company  wants  the  same 
muskrat  and  beaver  and  seal ;  the  Indian  hunter,  un- 
improved, and  the  half-breed  European,  deteriorating, 
want  the  same  cotton  goods,  and  flint-lock  guns,  and  to- 
bacco and  gew-gaws. 

To-day,  as  a  hundred  years  ago,  the  dog-sledge  runs 
out  from  Winnipeg  for  its  solitary  drive  of  five  hundred, 
or  two  thousand,  or  even  three  thousand  miles.  It  glides, 
silent  as  a  spectre,  over  those  snow-fields  and  through 
the  solemn,  still  forests,  painfully  wanting  in  animal  life. 
Fifty,  seventy,  an  hundred  days  it  speeds  along,  and  as 
many  nights  it  camps  without  fire,  and  looks  up  to  the 
same  cold  stars.  At  the  intervening  posts  the  sledge 
makes  a  pause,  as  a  ship,  having  rounded  Cape  Horn, 
heaves  to  before  some  lone  Pacific  island.  It  is  the  same 
at  the  trader's  hut  or  factory  as  when  the  sledge-man's 
grandfather  drove  up,  the  same  dogs,  the  same  half- 
breeds  or  voyageurs  to  welcome  him,  the  same  foul, 
lounging  Indians,  and  the  same  mink-skin  in  exchange 
for  the  same  trinket.  The  fur  animal  and  its  purchaser 
and  hunter,  as  the  landscape,  seem  to  be  alike  under 
the  same  immutable,  unprogressive  law  of  nature :  — 

"Aland  where  all  things  always  seemed  the  same," 

as  among  the  lotus-eaters.  Human  progress  and  Indian 
civilization  have  made  scarcely  more  improvement  than 
that  central,  silent  partner  in  the  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany —  the  beaver. 


TUE  HUDSON  BAY  COMPANY.  41 

It  is  said,  with  an  accusing  comparison,  that  the  Eng- 
lish get  along  more  peacefully  than  the  Americans  in 
their  Indian  policy.  Let  the  Jamestown  colony  leave 
the  Indians  in  perpetual  quiet  in  their  wigwams  up  the 
James,  and  the  Pilgrims  their  savage  and  pagan  neigh- 
bors back  of  Plymouth  woods ;  pay  them  in  finery  and 
cheap  fabrics  for  tending  steel-traps  ;  and  give  their  em- 
igrating sons  to  their  tawny  daughters,  and  you  will  have 
no  troublesome  Indian  question,  and  —  no  United  States 
of  America.  England  has  obtained  peace  in  her  Indian 
territories,  and  what  else  ?  Splendid  dividends  in  Hud- 
son Bay  Company  stock.  The  same  wants  and  articles 
of  exchange  on  both  sides  at  the  end  of  a  century,  never 
rising  to  the  demand  and  supply  of  a  plough  as  an  arti- 
cle of  usual  shipment  and  use. 

One  feels  toward  the  power  of  this  Company,  moving 
thus  with  evenness  and  immutability  through  a  hundred 
years,  much  as  one  does  toward  a  law  of  nature.  At 
Fort  Selkirk,  for  example,  the  fifty-two  numbers  of  the 
weekly  London  "  Times  "  came  in  on  the  last  sledge  ar- 
rival. The  first  number  is  already  three  years  old,  by  its 
tedious  voyage  from  the  Thames.  Now  one  number  only 
a  week  is  read  that  the  lone  trader  there  may  have  fresh 
news  weekly  till  the  next  annual  dog-mail  -arrives,  and 
each  successive  number  is  three  years  behind  time  when 
opened !  In  this  day  of  steamers  and  telegraphs  and 
telephones,  does  it  seem  possible  that  any  human,  white 
habitation  can  be  so  outside  of  the  geography  and  chron- 
ology of  this  world  ? 

The  goods  of  the  Company,  packed  and  shipped  in 
Fenchurch  Street,  leave  London,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
third  year  they  are  delivered  at  Fort  Confidence  on 
Great  Bear  Lake,  or  at  any  other  extreme  factory  of 


42      OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

the  Company ;  and  at  the  end  of  three  years  more  the 
return  furs  go  up  the  Thames  and  into  Fenchurch  Street 
again.  So  in  cycles  of  six  years,  and  from  age  to  age, 
like  a  planet,  the  shares  in  the  Hudson  Bay  Company 
make  their  orbit  and  dividends.  A  run  of  three  months 
and  the  London  ship  drops  anchor  in  Hudson  Bay. 
"  For  one  year,"  says  Butler,  in  his  "  Great  Lone  Land," 
"  the  stores  that  she  has  brought  in  lie  in  the  warehouse 
of  York  Factory ;  twelve  months  later  they  reach  Red 
River  ;  twelve  months  later  they  reach  Fort  Simpson  on 
the  Mackenzie." 

The  original  stock  of  this  Company  was  $50,820.  In 
fifty  years  it  was  tripled  twice  by  profits  only,  and  went 
up  to  $457,380,  while  not  one  new  dollar  was  paid  in. 
In  1821  the  Company  absorbed  the  North-west  Company 
of  Montreal,  on  a  basis  of  value  equal  to  its  own.  The 
consolidated  stock  then  was  $1,916,000,  of  which  $1,- 
780,866  was  from  profits.  Yet,  meanwhile,  there  had 
been  an  annual  payment  of  ten  per  cent,  to  stockholders. 
In  1836  one  of  the  Company's  ships  left  Fort  George 
for  London,  with  a  cargo  of  furs  valued  at  $380,000.1 

A  further  illustration  of  this  rapid  increase  in  value 
should  be  mentioned  here.  Prior  to  1837  men  from 
the  United  States  had  begun  to  promote  agriculture  in 
Oregon  by  the  planting  of  colonies.  To  offset  this  move- 
ment and  hold  the  territory  by  colonies  of  its  own,  the 
Company,  with  its  surplus  funds,  organized  and  put  into 
operation  the  Puget  Sound  Agricultural  Company,  as 
another  department  of  their  work.  When  the  English 
government,  in  1846,  conceded  the  claims  of  the  United 
States  to  Oregon,  property  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany was  found  within  Oregon  for  which  that  Company 
claimed  $4,990,036.67.  The  lands,  buildings,  and  im- 

1  A  History  of  Oregon,  1870.     By  W.  H.  Gray,  pp.  68,  69,  83. 


THE  HUDSON  BAY  COMPANY.  43 

provements,  generally,  of  this  Puget  Sound  Company, 
made  a  large  item  in  the  total  amount  claimed  as  dam- 
ages. To  such  an  extent  had  this  company  of  Hudson 
Bay  traders  grown  in  territory,  government,  business, 
capital,  dividends,  and  presumed  damages,  when  called 
on  to  retire  from  their  trespass  in  Oregon.  In  view 
of  such  a  competitor  it  is  surprising  that  the  United 
States  should  have  succeeded  in  recovering  its  original 
and  long  alienated  rights  in  that  country.  Nor  would 
it  have  succeeded  but  for  its  hardy  frontiersmen.  Our 
vast  border  of  wild  land  has  furnished,  and  is  still  fur- 
nishing, a  class  of  people  peculiar  to  ourselves.  They 
disappear  beyond  the  line  of  cabins  and  plowed  fields 
and  courts  and  locks  to  be  a  community  and  a  law 
unto  themselves.  The  constitution  and  statutes  and 
by-laws  to  which  they  own  allegiance  are  in  their  rifle 
and  revolver  and  saddle.  Organized  law  and  order 
follow  tardily  under  the  flag,  and  much  more  tardily 
the  Bible  and  the  spelling-book  of  benevolent  societies. 
While  indispensable  to  our  magnificent  growth  in  set- 
tlements and  American  institutions,  they  are  neglected, 
as  beyond  reach,  and  unworthy  of  attention,  and  a 
hopeless  class.  While  we  succeed,  thousands  of  miles 
off,  in  teaching  cannibals  to  prefer  beef,  we  reproach 
these  Americans  three  generations  from  a  New  England 
or  any  other  school-house  for  being  rougVi  and  lawless 
and  unchristian. 

One  cannot  but  admire  the  foresight,  compass,  policy, 
and  ability  with  which  those  English  fur-traders  moved 
to  gain  possession,  and  then  keep  in  wilderness  for  fur- 
breeding,  so  much  of  North  America.  Their  agents 
gained  a  kind  of  ubiquity,  wherever  there  could  be 
found  the  beaver,  the  land  and  sea  otter,  the  fisher  and 


44     OREGON:  TIIE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

mink,  the  muskrat,  wolf,  wolverine,  and  the  many 
foxes  of  commerce,  the  sable,  raccoon,  and  rabbit,  the 
black,  brown,  and  grizzly  bear,  and  the  lumbering  buf- 
falo. The  sale  of  rabbit  skins  in  London  alone  in  one 
year  was  ordinarily  thirteen  hundred  thousand. 

For  these  iur-bearing  animals  the  hunters  of  this  Com- 
pany were  almost  everywhere  in  the  wild  half  of  North. 
America.  One  could  seldom  travel  long  and  far  without 
crossing  their  trail  or  springing  their  steel-traps.  Their 
birch  was  on  the  lake,  or  headed  up  to  it,  silent  and 
graceful  as  the  wild-duck ;  and  around  and  over  those 
swampy  acres  flowed  by  the  beaver-dam,  they  glided 
stealthily.  la  that  sunny  nook,  far  up  in  the  Rockies, 
where  the  grass  is  last  to  go  and  first  to  come,  and  in  more 
north-western  regions  never  fails,  one  may  see  the  smoke 
curling  lip  cliffs  and  blackening  the  snows  around  their 
cosy  huts.  "Where  wide-awake  Omaha  and  Council  Bluffs 
now  bridge  the  Missouri,  they  were,  as  to-day  they  are 
in  the  perpetual  verdure  of  Vancouver.  They  are  at 
Fort  McPherson  arid  the  mouths  of  the  Mackenzie, 
where  icebergs  come  drifting  in,  perhaps  across  the  track 
of  the  lost  Franklin,  and  they  are  basking,  too,  in  a 
six  weeks'  summer  on  the  upper  Yukon,  after  a  pack  of 
ten  months  in  snow  and  ice.  When  Lewis  and  Clark 
were  going  through  our  new  purchase  to  examine  it,  and 
were  fifteen  hundred  miles  up  the  Missouri,  they  found 
a  McCraken  of  this  Company  trading  with  the  Indians. 
After  they  had  gone  into  winter  quarters  in  December, 
1804,  among  the  Mandans,  one  Henderson  visited  them. 
He  had  a  Hudson  Bay  trading-post  eight  days  north. 
It  was  as  if  that  Company  had  picketed  all  the  wild  in- 
terior, and  this  watchful  sentinel  had  challenged  the 
advance  of  intruders. 


THE  HUDSON  BAT  COMPANY.  45 

Travelers  tell  us  of  an  oppressive,  painful  silence 
through  all  that  weird  northland.  Quadruped  life,  and 
the  scanty  little  that  there  is  of  bird  life  is  not  vocal, 
much  less  musical.  This  Company  has  partaken  of  the 
silence  of  its  domain.  It  makes  but  little  noise  for  so 
great  an  organization.  It  says  but  few  things  and  only 
the  necessary  ones,  and  even  those  with  an  obscurity 
often,  that  only  the  interested  and  initiated  understand. 
The  statements  of  its  works  and  results  are  mostly  in 
the  passive  voice. 

It  may  be  well  to  note  here  how  far  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  hindered  discoveries  in  North  America.  Ac- 
cording to  its  charter  its  first  object  was  "  the  discovery 
of  a  new  passage  into  the  South  Sea,"  but  the  Company 
put  various  hindrances  in  the  way  of  such  enterprises, 
as  if  success  in  this  line  would  open  a  highway  through 
their  monopoly,  or  plant  rivals  on  their  border. 

In  his  history  of  Arctic  Voyages  Sir  John  Barrow 
says  that  when  the  Company  came  into  a  prosperous 
state  of  affairs  "  the  north-west  passage  seems  to  have 
been  entirely  forgotten,  not  only  by  the  adventurers  who 
had  obtained  their  exclusive  charter  under  this  pretext, 
but  also  by  the  nation  at  large  ;  at  least  nothing  more  ap- 
pears to  have  been  heard  on  the  subject  for  more  than 
half  a  century." 

When,  in  1719,  Mr.  Knight,  its  governor,  proposed 
that  two  vessels  be  sent  to  look  up  a  rumored  copper 
mine  at  the  mouth  of  a  river  on  the  Arctic,  the  Company 
refused  the  proposal.  In  1741  one  Dobbs  secured  such 
an  expedition  from  the  Company,  and  yet  they  showed 
such  indifference  and  even  hostility  to  it  that  he  says  in 
his  narrative  :  "  The  Company  avoid  all  they  can  mak- 
ing discoveries  to  the  northward  of  Churchill,  or  extend- 


46       OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

ing  their  trade  that  way,  for  fear  they  should  discover  a 
passage  to  the  western  ocean  of  America,  and  tempt  by 
that  means  the  rest  of  the  English  merchants  to  lay  open 
their  trade."  Commenting  on  this  passage,  Sir  John 
says : "  They  not  only  discouraged  all  attempts  at  northern 
discovery,  but  withheld  what  little  information  came  to 
their  knowledge."  The  next  year  Captain  Middleton 
was  commissioned  by  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  to  ex- 
plore the  northern  and  western  waters  of  Hudson  Bay, 
for  any  connection  with  the  Arctic.  He  was  openly  ac- 
cused of  taking  a  bribe  of  five  thousand  pounds  from  the 
Company  to  make  his  expedition  a  failure,  as  it  was. 
Then  the  government,  as  if  struggling  against  the  Com- 
pany, offered  a  reward  of  twenty  thousand  pounds  to 
any  party  who  would  make  a  success  of  it.  When,  in 
1746,  an  exploring  party  were  aground  in  the  vicinity 
of  Fort  York,  the  Governor  of  the  Company  cut  down 
the  beacon,  that  the  wreck  might  be  made  sure.  In 
1769  the  Company,  to  keep  up  appearances,  and  the  let- 
ter of  their  charter,  sent  one  of  their  number,  Mr.  Hearne, 
overland,  with  a  party  to  discover  a  rumored  copper 
mine.  He  went  out  over  twelve  hundred  miles,  and  yet 
made  but  one  observation  to  fix  latitude,  and  added  but 
a  trifle  to  the  knowledge  of  those  northern  regions, 
though  he  went  as  far  as  the  Coppermine  River.  Twenty 
years  later  they  sent  Mackenzie  to  the  same  vicinity, 
and  he  brought  back  even  less  information.  Though 
the  river  seemed  to  have  a  tide  he  did  not  even  taste  the 
water  to  see  whether  it  were  salt  and  he  near  the  sea. 
In  1790  a  Mr.  Duncan  was  sent  out  by  the  Governor  to 
make  explorations  in  a  certain  vessel  of  the  Company. 
But  when  he  arrived  at  the  post  the  men  there  pretend- 
ed that  the  vessel  was  unseavvorthy,  and  he  gave  up  the 


THE  HUDSON  BAY  COMPANY.  47 

expedition,  though  they  used  the  vessel  for  twenty  years 
afterward.  When  he  was  carrying  out  his  plan  the 
next  year  his  crew  mutinied,  encouraged  by  his  first  of- 
ficer, who  was  a  servant  of  the  Company. 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  ob- 
structed the  progress  of  geographical  and  general  dis- 
covery in  North  America ;  and  we  shall  see  that  it  did 
the  same  as  to  the  increase  of  English  commerce  and 
the  growth  of  English  settlements  and  civilization  in  the 
same  vast  regions. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ENGLISH   MONOPOLY   OF   THE   FRONTIER. 

IT  required  a  second  treaty,  1794,  to  bring  the  Eng- 
lish to  a  surrender  of  the  seven  military  posts  within  the 
United  States,  which  they  agreed  to  surrender  by  the 
Treaty  of  1783.  As  we  have  already  seen,  they  contin- 
ued to  hold  these  for  Indian  trade,  to  stimulate  hostility 
to  immigration,  and  as  good  bases  for  working  their  own 
interests  in  recovering  territory  beyond  the  Ohio,  if 
things  should  go  unfavorably  for  the  young  Republic. 
But  the  growing  compactness  of  the  Republic  as  a  union 
of  states,  and  its  natural  increase  in  population  and 
general  strength,  held  out  but  poor  hopes  for  Great 
Britain  in  this  purpose. 

In  1751  the  English,  through  the  Ohio  Company, 
planned  to  remove  the  French  from  the  region  of  the 
Ohio,  and  after  much  diplomacy  and  fighting,  here  and 
there,  they  succeeded,  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  in 
wresting  from  them  all  their  claims  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. "  For  the  acquisition  of  this  great  and  fertile  re- 
gion," says  Monette,  "  Great  Britain  had  contended  with 
France  for  more  than  sixty  years,  at  an  immense  cost  of 
blood  and  treasure,  expended  in  no  less  than  five  long 
and  expensive  wars,  and  great  human  suffering  by  sea 
and  land." 1 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  Great  Britain 
1  Monette's  History  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  1846,  vol.  i.  440. 


ENGLISH  MONOPOLY  OF  THE  FRONTIER.       49 

strenuously  urged  the  Ohio  as  the  western  limit  of  the 
now  independent  colonies.  When  she.  reluctantly  con- 
sented to  carry  the  line  to  the  Great  Lakes  and  river,  it 
was  in  accordance  with  her  previous  policy  that  she  did 
not  keep  her  promise  promptly  in  vacating  the  strong- 
holds in  the  ceded  territory.  England  had  adopted  a 
similar  course,  and  successfully,  when  France  gained  the 
Hudson  Bay  country  by  the  Treaty  of  Ryswick.  At 
that  time  she  shuffled  and  hesitated  over  the  stipulated 
surrender,  and  held  Fort  Albany,  on  James  Bay,  till  her 
reacquisition  of  the  whole  by  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht. 

In  1779  the  Spanish  on  the  lower  Mississippi  being 
in  sympathy  with  the  revolutionary  colonies,  moved  to 
expel  the  English  from  West  Florida,  and  were  success- 
ful, with  the  exception  of  Pensacola,  the  capital.  To 
avenge  these  wrongs  and  divert  the  Spanish  forces  from 
the  south  the  English  commander  at  Mackinaw,  in  1780, 
organized  an  attack  on  St.  Louis,  the  capital  of  Upper 
Louisiana  —  then  a  Spanish  province.  His  force  con- 
sisted  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  British  and  Cana- 
dian regulars  and  fourteen  hundred  Indians.  The  mixed 
Spanish,  French,  and  Indian  town  had  a  stockade  de- 
fence with  a  few  cannon  and  some  light  arms.  The 
Spanish  governor  was  not  free  from  suspicion  of  dealing 
treacherously,  and,  but  for  the  timely  arrival,  on  express 
call,  of  General  George  Rogers  Clark  from  Kaskaskia, 
the  United  States  officer  in  charge  of  the  Illinois  coun- 
try, the  result  must  have  been  serious  in  the  extreme. 
As  it  was,  about  sixty  citizens  were  killed,  but  the  attack 
was  a  failure.  The  year  is  registered  in  the  annals  of 
that  frontier  and  wilderness  town  as  L'  Annee  du  Coup. 
If  the  English  had  succeeded,  their  possession  of  St. 
Louis  would  probably  have  given  to  them  Upper  Louis- 
4 


50     OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

iana  in  the  capture  of  its  capital.  At  least  it  would 
have  embarrassed,  and  perhaps  prevented,  the  retroces- 
sion of  it  by  Spain  to  France  in  1800,  and  so  its  sale  to  the 
United  States  in  1803.  Thus,  possibly,  the  old  ambi- 
tion of  England  might  have  obtained  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  Mississippi  a  substitute  for  its  painful  loss  on  the 
east  of  it. 

This,  very  likely,  would  have  made  the  Oregon  ques- 
tion impossible  ;  and  perhaps  would  have  left  that  west- 
ern slope  of  the  great  valley  in  hands  that  we  have  seen 
were  fast  taking  possession  of  it.  If  so,  and  the  Hud- 
son Bay  Company  had  allowed  no  more  settlement 
and  civilization  there  than  in  their  original  field,  they 
might  now  be  skinning  buffalo  on  the  wheat  farms  of 
Illinois,  Minnesota,  and  Dakota,  and  catching  beavers 
and  grizzlies  where  Americans  have  honeycombed  the 
mountains  for  gold  and  silver,  and  built  factories  and 
cities,  and  stretched  out  railroads. 

It  was  very  clear  that  the  fur-trade  would  be  ruined 
in  the  northwest  if  immigration  poured  into  that  region. 
Hence  the  agents  and  servants  of  this  traffic  excited  the 
natives  against  the  innovating  settlements,  from  the  in- 
dependence of  the  colonies  to  the  War  of  1812.  Our 
entire  domain  beyond  the  Alleghanies,  south  to  the 
Gulf,  and  north  to  the  Lakes,  was  in  an  uneasy  and  crit- 
ical relation  to  the  government  in  1794  and  thereabout. 
It  had  no  direct  communication  over  the  mountains  with 
the  Atlantic,  for  the  transportation  of  its  productions, 
and  only  fickle,  expensive,  and  annoying  permits  from 
the  Spanish  for  passage  down  the  valley  to  the  Gulf. 
It  was  not  in  easy  and  frequent  communication  with 
the  States,  and  with  the  national  administration  at 
Philadelphia,  and  was  both  tempted  to  secession,  and 


ENGLISH  MONOPOLY  OF  THE  FRONTIER.       51 

provoked  toward  war  with  the  Spanish  in  the  south- 
west. Within  a  few  years  of  the  close  of  the  last 
century,  and  in  the  opening  ones  of  this,  there  were 
four  tendencies  among  the  Americans  beyond  the  moun- 
tains, with  a  chance  that  one  or  more  might  develop  into 
a  sectional  faction  :  Secession  and  an  independent  gov- 
ernment :  Annexation  to  the  Province  of  Louisiana : 
War  with  Spain  to  gain  the  Mississippi  River :  Union 
of  the  territory  between  the  Ohio,  Mississippi,  and  Gulf 
with  the  Province  of  Louisiana  under  a  foreign  protect- 
orate. Probably  Washington  never  showed  more  of  the 
combination  of  the  general  and  the  statesman  than  when, 
ten  years  before,  he  made  the  tour  of  the  West,  and 
then  wrote  to  Governor  Harrison  of  Virginia  and  the 
father  of  the  President :  "  I  need  not  remark  to  you 
that  the  flank  and  roar  of  the  United  States  are  pos- 
sessed by  other  powers,  and  formidable  ones  too.  .  .  . 
How  entirely  unconnected  with  them  shall  we  be,  and 
what  troubles  may  we  not  apprehend,  if  the  Spaniards 
on  the  right  and  Great  Britain  on  the  left,  instead  of 
throwing  stumbling-blocks  in  the  way,  as  they  now  do, 
should  hold  out  lures  for  their  trade  and  alliance  !  When 
they  gain  strength,  which  will  be  sooner  than  most  peo- 
ple conceive-  .  .  .  The  Western  States  hang  upon 
a  pivot.  The  touch  of  a  feather  would  turn  them  any 
way."  l 

As  early  as  1787  the  Spanish  authorities  in  the  south- 
west took  active  measues  to  seduce  sections  of  our  do- 
main there  into  secession,  and  lead  them  to  join  the 
Spanish  Province  of  Louisiana.  To  this  project  Gen- 
eral Wilkinson,  our  military  head  of  the  southwest,  is 
strongly  suspected  of  having  given  not  only  ear,  but  aid, 
1  Irving's  Life  of  Washington,  vol.  iv.  454-459. 


52      OREGON:    THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

and  to  have  received  heavy  pecuniary  bribes.  This  sus- 
picion and  almost  assurance  covered  him  from  this  date 
to  the  exposure  and  suppression  of  Burr's  conspiracy  to 
draw  the  southwest  into  a  revolt,  in  the  years  1805-7. 

A  bundle  of  private  letters  in  my  possession,  written 
about  that  time  by  one  who  was  afterwards  an  eminent 
citizen  of  Missouri,  distinctly  asserts  this  suspicion. 
Quite  lately  Gayarre,  the  historian  of  Louisiana,  is  said 
to  have  discovered  in  the  archives  at  Seville  the  secret 
correspondence  of  Wilkinson  with  the  Spanish  officials, 
showing  that  he  and  others  received  bribes  and  entered 
into  negotiations,  to  annex  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  to 
the  then  Spanish  dominion  of  Louisiana.  Indeed  it  was 
with  great  peril  that  the  United  States  maintained  su- 
premacy over  her  own  territory  in  that  region  against 
the  schemes  of  the  Spanish  and  French. 

The  most  serious  and  obvious  danger,  however,  was 
English,  since  Great  Britain,  from  the  strongholds  she 
retained,  fed  and  armed  and  incited  the  Indians,  who,  in 
marauding  parties,  made  raids  upon  the  frontier  and 
held  in  check  the  growth  of  settlement.  These  annoy- 
ances and  dangers  continued  with  but  little  cessation,  and 
with  other  causes  brought  on  the  War  of  1812.  Te- 
cumseh,  a  man  of  great  native  talent,  activity,  and  per- 
sistance,  had  opposed  the  treaties  that  gave  to  the  whites 
the  lands  beyond  the  Ohio.  From  the  days  of  the  Rev- 
olution he  had  stood  forth  as  the  great  Indian  statesman 
and  warrior  of  the  west.  The  English  used  him,  with  his 
brother,  the  Prophet,  to  rouse  and  combine  the  Indians 
all  along  the  frontier,  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf.  Gen- 
eral Harrison,  afterward  president,  met  Tecumseh,  with 
a  score  or  more  of  his  chiefs,  in  council  at  Vincennes, 
1811,  for  a  friendly  settlement  of  grievances.  The  im- 


ENGLISH  MONOPOLY  OF  THE  FRONTIER.       53 

perious  and  insolent  sachem  broke  up  the  conference, 
and  Harrison  soon  after  carried  the  questions  to  the 
battle  of  Tippecanoe,  where  there  was  a  total  defeat  of 
the  Indians.  That  battle  opened  the  War  of  1812,  in 
which,  among  other  issues,  the  English  made  an  effort 
to  recover  the  northwest,  and  so  carry  a  monopoly  to 
the  Pacific,  but  in  this  they  failed. 

But  while  Great  Britain,  the  nation,  was  thus  strug- 
gling and  failing,  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  the  cor- 
poration which,  practically,  was  Great  Britain  in  North 
America,  was  silently  coming  into  actual  possession  in 
the  deeper  wilderness  between  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Pacific.  The  United  States,  it  is  true,  had  come  into 
legal  possession  of  that  magnificent  country,  but  not  into 
occupation.  The  issue,  therefore,  between  the  mother 
country,  ambitious  for  territory,  and  the  growing  repub- 
lic was  to  be  made  in  a  farther  west,  and  the  national 
title  to  Oregon  was  to  be  determined  on  its  immediate 
border,  and  within  its  limits. 

After  the  Treaty  of  1783,  in  the  settlement  of  the 
Revolution,  the  boundary  was  to  be  run,  according  to 
agreement,  between  the  United  States  and  the  Brit- 
ish possessions.  In  attempting  and  at  last  completing 
this  work,  the  same  old  Saxon  greed  for  land  showed 
itself.  At  first  it  might  seem  an  easy  and  brief  labor 
to  run  the  lines,  yet  before  the  work  was  done,  eighty- 
nine  years  passed  by. 

Both  parties  to  the  war  were  wearied  of  the  strife, 
and  were  willing  to  guess  jointly  on  a  river  head,  or 
lake  point,  or  mountain  height,  and  so  fix  bounds,  and 
thence  run  treaty  lines  on  paper,  through  wild  lands  un- 
known to  each.  Thus  the  northwest  point  of  the  Lake 
of  the  Woods  was  assumed  for  one  bound  from  which 


54     OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

the  line  was  to  run,  to  the  north-western  point  of  the 
Lake,  and  thence  "due  west"  to  the  Mississippi.  The 
clause  in  the  treaty  reads  thus  :  "  to  the  said  Lake  of  the 
Woods,  thence  through  the  said  Lake  to  the  most  north- 
western point  thereof,  and  from  thence  on  a  due  west 
course  to  the  river  Mississippi."  But  the  head  of  that 
river  proved  to  be  a  hundred  miles  or  so  to  the  south. 
So  that  little  prominence  in  our  otherwise  straight 
boundary  on  the  north  is  the  bump  of  ignorance  devel- 
oped by  two  nations.  The  St.  Croix  was  fixed  by  treaty 
as  the  boundary  on  the  northeast,  but  a  special  "  Joint 
Commission  "  was  required  in  1794  to  determine  "  what 
river  is  the  St.  Croix,"  and  four  years  afterward  this 
Commission  called  for  an  addition  to  their  instructions 
since  their  original  ones  were  not  broad  enough  to  en- 
able them  to  determine  the  true  St.  Croix. 

Still  nothing  was  agreed  to  by  actual  lines  and  bounds, 
and  in  1814  another  Joint  Commission  was  appointed, 
but  in  an  entirely  new  field.  At  this  time  the  work 
was  to  determine  what  islands  should  belong  to  the 
United  States  between  Florida  and  Nova  Scotia.  In  the 
same  year,  however,  another  set  of  Commissioners  began 
the  running  of  the  boundary  from  the  head  of  the  St. 
Croix,  by  the  head  of  the  Connecticut  to  the  St.  Law- 
rence, and  thence  through  the  middle  of  its  channel  and 
the  middle  of  the  Lakes,  to  the  outlet  of  Lake  Superior. 
After  a  labor  of  seven  and  a  half  years  in  mapping,  nam- 
ing, and  dividing  about  one  hundred  and  eighty  islands 
along  this  middle  channel,  the  Corps  of  Commissioners 
and  civil  engineers  arrived  with  their  line  at  the  Sault  Ste. 
Marie.  Still  it  remained  to  carry  the  line  through  Lake 
Superior  and  to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  which  in  due  time 
was  accomplished,  and  in  1818  it  was  agreed  to  by  the 


ENGLISH  MONOPOLY  OF  THE  FRONTIER.      55 

Commissioners,  though  not  run  on  the  forty-ninth  paral- 
lel from  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  to  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

Yet  this  was  not  without  hindrances  and  anxieties. 
The  negotiations  were  carried  on  at  London,  and  both 
parties  were  still  in  ignorance  of  the  location,  in  latitude 
and  longitude,  of  the  old  bound  —  the  north-west  point 
of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods.  It  was  agreed,  therefore,  to 
run  north  or  south  from  it,  as  the  case  might  require,  till 
the  forty-ninth  parallel  should  be  struck,  and  then  on 
that  parallel  to  the  mountains.  The  English  Commis- 
sioners, still  painfully  reluctant  to  part  with  the  coveted 
and  long-struggled-for  Mississippi  Valley,  endeavored  to 
secure  for  English  subjects  over  the  line,  a  right  of  way 
to  the  Mississippi  River,  and  free  navigation  of  the 
same. 

It  was  probably  a  fair  hundred  miles  across  the  coun- 
try from  the  nearest  British  territory  to  the  upper  heads 
of  that  river,  where  the  Mississippi  begins  in  some  trout 
brook.  Thence  its  waters  run  more  than  three  thousand 
miles  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  It  was  a  bold,  English 

'  O 

request,  that  they  be  permitted  to  traverse  that  belt  and 
avail  themselves  of  that  navigation,  where  they  had  no 
foot  of  land.  It  was  a  vain  endeavor  of  course,  and  with 
a  longing,  lingering,  and  last  look  on  that  splendid  val- 
ley, they  turned  away,  and  set  their  faces  "  due  west " 
on  the  latitude  of  forty-nine. 

Therefore  in  the  London  negotiations  of  1818  there 
was  a  suspension  of  line  running  westward.  A  com- 
promise followed,  the  joint  occupation  of  Oregon  for 
ten  years  was  the  result,  and  in  1827  the  compromise  of 
joint  occupation  was  renewed,  and  was  to  run  indefinite- 
ly, but  terminable  by  a  notice  of  one  year  given  by  either 
party. 


56      OREGON:    THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

Meanwhile  the  line  between  the  St.  Croix  and  the 
St.  Lawrence  remained  undecided,  and  the  Ashburton- 
Webster  Treaty  of  1842  fixed  it.  Four  years  later 
another  Joint  Commission  was  raised  to  run  the  north- 
western boundary  line  from  the  mountains  to  the  "  mid- 
dle of  the  channel"  between  the  mainland  and  Vancou- 
ver Island.  But  when  the  Commission  came  to  the 
Pacific  coast  they  could  not  agree  on  the  "  middle  of  the 
Channel." 

In  1871  the  question  was  submitted  to  the  Emperor 
of  Germany  as  final  arbiter  on  the  meaning  of  the 
phrase,  "  middle  of  the  Channel,"  and  which  channel  it 
called  for;  and  in  1872  he  affirmed  the  claim  of  the 
United  States. 

Thus,  under  eight  treaties,  with  fifteen  specifications 
of  work  to  be  done,  and  running  through  eighty-nine 
years,  this  boundary  question  was  prolonged  to  its  con- 
clusion. 

This  summary  of  the  boundary  questions  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain  will  show  with  what 
tenacity  England  held  to  her  land  claims,  and  laud 
chances  too,  and  with  what  protesting  reluctance  she  re- 
ceded north  and  west  before  the  United  States.  The 
summary  will  aid,  too,  in  showing  how  the  two  nations 
slowly  and  earnestly  closed  in  around  the  coveted  Ore- 
gon. For  fourscore  years  distance  from  the  prize  had 
kept  them  cool  and  steady  in  the  struggle,  but  now  the 
two  parties,  standing  together  and  looking  down  on  that 
prize  from  the  crown  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  warmed 
into  an  ardor  which  could  only  increase  till  one  of  them 
should  take  it. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

ASTORIA  ;    ITS    FOUNDING   AND    FAILURE. 

WHEN,  in  1818,  the  Joint  Boundary  Commission 
agreed  on  the  parallel  of  forty-nine,  and  carried  it  west 
to  the  mountains,  and  would  have  continued  it  to  the 
Pacific,  they  were  stopped  by  fur-traders,  who  had,  prac- 
tically, set  up  two  nationalities  in  the  territory,  each  of 
which  was  striving  for  the  whole.  It  came  about  in  this 
way. 

When  the  Commissioners  were  trying,  in  1794,  to  de- 
termine "  what  river  is  the  St.  Croix,"  Mackenzie  had 
just  returned  from  a  tour  from  Montreal  to  the  Arctic 
and  Pacific  oceans.  This  tour  was  the  first  sign  of 
white  men,  and  of  a  new  order  of  things  in  the  wilds 
beyond  the  mountains.  The  openings  and  possibilities 
for  trade  made  known  by  Mackenzie's  tours  were  dis- 
cussed, not  only  at  Fort  Chippewa,  on  Athabasca,  but 
at  York  Factory  as  well,  and  in  London  too.  Un- 
measured territory  and  untold  wealth  seemed  to  be 
suddenly  revealed  to  the  English  fur-trade,  and  one 
company,  the  Northwest  of  Montreal,  at  once  began 
preparations  to  enter  it. 

The  tour  of  Lewis  and  Clark,  1804-6,  made  the  Eng- 
lish jealous  lest  the  Americans  should  gain  the  advance ; 
and  in  1805,  before  the  American  explorers  had  returned, 
the  Northwest  Company  (Jispatched  an  expedition  un- 
der one  Laroque,  to  occupy  the  Columbia  with  trad- 


58     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

ing-posts.  They,  however,  did  not  proceed  beyond  the 
Mandan  village  on  the  Missouri.  But  in  the  year  fol- 
lowing Mr.  Fraser  left  Fort  Chippewa,  crossed  the 
mountains,  and  planted  an  establishment  on  Fraser  Lake. 
This  was  the  first  settlement  made  by  the  English  west 
of  the  mountains.  Other  posts  were  soon  planted  by  the 
same  Company,  and  the  region  was  called  New  Cale- 
donia. 

The  return  of  Lewis  and  Clark,  the  next  year,  stimu- 
lated individual  enterprise  in  occupying  the  new  Ameri- 
can purchase  and  magnificent  fur  lands.  The  struggles 
of  competitors  were  sharp  and  serious  at  times,  but  were 
finally  compromised  in  the  organization  of  the  American 
Fur  Company,  in  1808,  with  head-quarters  at  St.  Louis. 
They  started  trading-posts  on  the  sources  of  the  Missis- 
sippi and  Missouri,  arid  some  on  the  other  side  of  the 
mountains.  Mr.  Henry,  one  of  their  agents,  established 
Post  Henry,  on  Lewis  River,  and,  so  far  as  appears,  this 
was  the  first  trading  factory  of  any  white  people  in  ter- 
ritory drained  by  the  Columbia. 

The  long-deferred  contest  for  Oregon  was  now  fairly 
opened,  not  by  ministers  of  state,  but  by  daring  and 
frontier  business  men,  who  it  will  be  finally  seen  closed 
the  contest.  They  were  the  primaries  of  the  two  com- 
peting governments.  Two  overland  expeditions  to  the 
Pacific,  led  by  Mackenzie,  and  by  Lewis  and  Clark,  had 
challenged  each  other  for  the  grand  prize,  and  the  two 
primaries  stood  at  Fraser  Lake  and  Post  Henry. 

John  Jacob  Astor  made  the  next  prominent  move- 
ment in  the  direction  of  Oregon.  Mr.  Astor  was  a  man 
of  broad  business  vision  and  keen  perception  in  financial 
lines.  He  had  such  a  passi6n  for  fur  that  his  whole  ner- 
vous organization  seemed  to  thrill  with  the  ruffling  and 


ASTORIA:  ITS  FOUNDING  AND  FAILURE.       59 

smoothing  of  some  rare  and  choice  skins.  He  prohably 
never  looked  on  a  prime  black  beaver  or  one  of  those 
heavy,  pulpy  sea-otter  skins  without  coveting  it,  and 
never  let  one  slide  out  of  his  sensitive  hands  without  re- 
luctance. 

An  incident  will  show  his  eye  for  business.  He  was 
a  German  immigrant,  and  when  first  coming  upon  our 
coast  in  Chesapeake  Bay,  a  terrible  storm  and  thin  ice- 
floes made  the  wreck  of  the  ship  in  which  he  sailed  al- 
most a  certainty.  While  thus  in  long  and  increasing 
perils,  young  Astor  came  on  deck,  to  the  surprise  of  his 
stricken  and  hopeless  companions,  in  his  best  suit  of 
clothes.  His  explanation  was  that  if  he  escaped  with 
life  his  clothes  would  be  all  he  could  save,  and  he  would 
save  his  best.  That  habit  of  forethought  for  the  main 
chance  grew  with  his  years,  and  finally  placed  him  in 
the  first  line  of  millionaires  in  America.  When  I  used 
to  see  him  on  the  streets  of  New  York  he  was  sup- 
ported between  two  stout  men,  much  bowed  over,  so 
that  he  could  not  look  up  to  see  even  his  own  merchant 
blocks,  where  every  brick  represented  a  beaver  and 
every  faced  stone  a  sea-otter. 

At  the  age  of  forty  Mr.  Astor  was  well  established 
in  his  favorite  business  on  the  Great  Lakes  and  their 
rivers,  where  this  western  and  Pacific  opening  was  made 
tempting  to  daring  men.  His  quick  eye  saw  the  chances, 
not  only  for  his  fascinating  fur-trade,  in  the  mountains 
and  on  the  shores  beyond,  but  for  a  half-way  house 
on  the  Columbia  between  New  York  and  China,  for 
his  general  Asiatic  trade.  The  scope  and  verge  of  the 
new  field  opened  fairly  to  the  compass  of  the  man,  who 
had  a  continental  grasp  in  his  business  hand.  His  gen- 
eral plan  was  to  build  a  substantial  and  fortified  trading- 


60     OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

post  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia,  as  a  place  of  deposit 
for  goods  and  their  exchanges  with  Indians,  trappers, 
and  small  traders.  To  this  post  he  would,  with  the  co- 
operation of  government,  open  a  comfortable  and  pro- 
tected overland  route  to  facilitate  general  traffic  and  set- 
tlements westward.  From  the  post  he  would  trade  up 
and  down  the  Pacific,  and  thence  to  Canton  and  on  the 
old  line  of  commerce  to  London  and  New  York.  It  was 
a  plan  of  excellent  strategy,  even  if  designed  only  to 
take  possession  of  Oregon  for  the  United  States,  and 
such  a  government  as  patronizes  an  East  India  or  Hud- 
son Bay  Company  would  have  so  regarded  and  used  it. 

But  the  old  east  of  the  United  States  has^never  meas- 
ured and  appreciated  and  anticipated  the  new  west. 
"  When  they  gain  strength,  which  will  be  sooner  than 
most  people  conceive."  Washington  said  that  of  the 
west,  after  his  tour  through  the  region,  and  its  truth 
holds  yet.  The  growing  strength  of  the  new  country 
is  surprising  the  expectations  and  surpassing  the  belief 
of  the  old  thirteen  states  every  year.  The  centre  of 
population  and  of  wealth  and  of  voting  and  political 
power  has  long  since  gone  over  the  mountains,  and  into 
the  very  region  of  which  Washington  spoke,  and  with 
more  rapid  steps  is  going  on  tp  a  farther  west.  The 
east  has  always  been  slow  to  know  this  and  own  it,  and 
make  the  most  and  the  best  of  it.  Astor  seemed  to 
see  farther  as  a  foreigner  than  the  native  born,  and  an- 
ticipated the  movement  of  the  nation  across  the  Missis- 
sippi, where  so  much  of  it  is  to-day. 

He  started  an  overland  expedition  from  St.  Louis  for 
the  Columbia  in  1810,  consisting  of  about  sixty  per- 
sons. After  a  journey  of  fifteen  months  and  much  suf- 
fering, this  company,  reduced  by  death,  arrived  at  As- 


ASTORIA:  ITS  FOUNDING  AND  FAILURE.        61 

toria.  A  company  of  about  the  same  number  mado 
shorter  time  and  arrived  earlier  by  the  way  of  Cape 
Horn.  After  building  and  properly  fortifying  Astoria, 
the  vessel,  the  Tonquin,  in  which  this  last  company 
came,  ran  up  the  coast  on  a  trading  cruise,  where  the 
crew  were  all  murdered  by  the  Indians,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  one,  who  managed  to  blow  up  the  ship,  when 
crowded  with  plundering  natives,  and  one  hundred  of 
them,  with  himself,  perished  in  the  act. 

In  anticipation  of  possible  mishaps,  Astor  sent  out  the 
Beaver  to  follow  the  Tonquin,  with  a  duplicate  of  her 
cargo  and  freight.  She  supplied  the  needs  of  the  young 
post,  after  the  sad  fate  of  her  associate,  and  then,  load- 
ing with  furs  at  Sitka,  the  Russian  head-quarters,  she 
put  out,  homeward,  and  for  trade  by  the  way  of  Canton. 
At  this  port  the  Beaver  learned  of  the  war  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain,  and,  not  daring  to  put 
out,  lay  by  there  till  the  war  closed.  Unfortunately 
Mi-.  Hunt,  the  agent  of  Astor,  had  gone  in  the  Beaver 
as  far  as  the  Sandwich  Islands.  There  he  also  was  de- 
taiued  when  news  of  the  war  arrived.  In  1813  Astor 
sent  forward  his  third  vessel,  the  Lark,  which  became  a 
total  loss,  by  shipwreck,  on  the  Sandwich  Islands.  The 
Lark  carried  instructions  to  Mr.  Hunt  to  protect  Asto- 
ria, and  Mr.  Hunt,  receiving  these  instructions,  at  once 
sailed  for  that  place  with  supplies. 

Another  in  the  series  of  misfortunes  awaited  him 
here,  for  he  learned,  on  arrival,  that  a  majority  of  the 
partners  with  Mr.  Astor  in  this  enterprise  had  sold  out 
to  the  Northwest  Fur  Company  of  Montreal  —  a  Brit- 
ish concern,  and  one  in  which  some  of  those  who  sold 
out  Astoria  were  concerned.  The  sale  was  not  free 
from  the  suspicion  that  it  was  both  dishonorable  and  dis- 


62     OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

honest.  Mr.  Astor  valued  the  property  at  $200,000, 
and  received  for  it  about  $40,000.  Before  this  sale,  the 
Astor  company,  called  the  Pacific  Fur  Company,  had 
established  two  other  trading-posts  in  the  interior,  and 
had  there  come  into  competition  if  not  conflict  with  the 
Northwest  Company.  These  two  were  included  in  the 
sale.1 

We  have  already  noticed  the  plan  of  the  Northwest 
Company  to  occupy  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia,  in  ad- 
vance of  the  return  of  Lewis  and  Clark,  and  thus  to 
hold  the  whole  interior  drained  by  that  river.  But 
Laroque  failed  in  the  endeavor.  In  the  summer  of 
1811,  after  Astoria  was  established,  a  party  of  the 
Northwest  Company  came  down  to  the  spot,  with  the 
hope  of  occupying  it  in  advance  of  the  Americans. 
They  had  been  dispatched  from  Canada  in  the  preceding 
year  to  do  this.  But  they  were  delayed  in  finding  a 
passage  through  the  mountains,  and  being  compelled 
to  winter  on  their  ridges  they  came  down  the  Columbia 
to  find  Astoria  already  founded. 

The  leading  partner  in  it,  and  the  one  who  afterward 
led  off  in  its  sale,  received  them  in  a  friendly  and  hospi- 
table way,  and  not  as  rivals  ;  when  they  returned  from 
their  vain  expedition,  he  supplied  them,  not  only  with 
provisions,  but  with  goods  for  trading  purposes  up  the 
river,  where  they  established  trading  huts  among  the 
Indians,  and  became  rivals  of  the  Americans.  Strange 
to  say,  when  the  question  of  priority  of  occupation  and 
of  national  sovereignty  was  under  discussion  at  London, 
fifteen  years  afterward,  the  English  put  in  these  huts  of 
this  returning  company,  as  proof  that  the  English  were 
as  early  as  if  not  earlier  in  the  Columbia  than  the  Amer- 
1  Irving' s  Astoria, 


ASTORIA:  fTS  FOUNDING  AND  FAILURE.      63 

icans.  In  the  following  year  two  other  agents  of  the 
Northwest  Company  were  received  at  Astoria  in  the 
same  genial  way,  though  the  existing  war  was  known  at 
Astoria,  and  on  their  return  they  also  were  supplied 
with  provisions  and  goods  for  trade  by  the  way.  Pri- 
vate conference  between  the  two  parties  was  produced 
afterward,  as  evidence  of  the  treachery  and  dishonor 
then  maturing  against  Mr.  Astor  and  his  company  and 
the  Americans  generally. 

Before  the  war  Great  Britain  asked  the  United 
States  to  favor  the  Northwest  Company  as  against  Mr. 
Astor.  This  they  declined  to  do,  but  immediately  on 
the  opening  of  the  war,  the  English  government  dis- 
patched a  naval  force  to  the  Columbia  with  orders  "  to 
take  and  destroy  everything  American  on  the  North- 
west Coast."  On  arrival  they  were  mortified  and  in- 
dignant that  Astoria  had  already  passed  into  English 
hands,  and  therefore  that  no  plunder  or  prize-money 
awaited  them.  They  had  but  the  barren  and  ceremo- 
nial service  to  perform  of  running  up  the  English  flag, 
to  call  the  post  St.  George,  and  sail  for  home.  This 
was  in  1813. 

Therefore,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  British  inter- 
ests in  fur  in  North  America,  the  American  adventurers 
were  first  dishonorably  bought  out  and  crowded  out  on 
the  Pacific,  and  then  the  position  which  they  occupied 
was  put  under  the  British  flag.  By  bad  faith  on  the 
part  of  his  Canadian  associates,  and  by  the  chances  of 
war,  Mr.  Astor  was  defeated  in  his  broad  plan.  As  a 
consequence  grave  anxieties  overshadowed  the  Amer- 
ican interests  on  that  coast.  We  wait  and  watch  to  see 
how  the  rivals  proceed,  and  who  prospers. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
FACE  TO  FACE:  AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND. 


was  declared  by  the  United  States  against 
Great  Britain,  June  12,  1812,  and  the  treaty  of  peace 
was  signed  at  Ghent,  December  14,  1814.  By  this 
treaty  it  was  agreed  that  "  all  territory,  places,  and  pos- 
sessions whatsoever,  taken  by  either  party  from  the 
other  during  the  war  .  „  .  shall  be  restored  without 
delay."  This  would  seem  to  cover  Astoria  and  call  for 
its  immediate  surrender  by  the  English  authority.  The 
next  year,  therefore,  President  Monroe  informed  the 
British  Charge  at  Washington  that  he  should  at  once 
reoccupy  Astoria.  Affairs  lingered  till  1817,  when  a 
vessel  was  put  in  readiness  for  that  object.  Then  Mr. 
Bagot,  the  English  plenipotentiary  at  Washington,  op- 
posed the  step.  He  made  two  points  of  objection. 
One  was  that  the  post  of  Astoria  was  sold  by  the 
Pacific  Company  to  the  Northwest  Company  before 
the  war,  and  therefore  had  never  been  captured.  But 
as  such  sale  would  convey  only  the  use  of  the  land  with 
the  property  on  it,  and  as  a  citizen  cannot  sell  land  so 
as  to  give  it  over  to  another  government,  he  made  an- 
other point,  that  "  the  territory  itself  was  early  taken 
possession  of  in  his  majesty's  name,  and  had  been  since 
considered  as  forming  part  of  his  majesty's  dominions." 

Under  pressure  of  Mr.   Rush,   our  minister   at   the 
Court  of  St.  James,  repossession  was  granted,  but  the 


FACE  TO  FACE:  AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND.      65 

questions  of  absolute  title,  as  to  the  point  which  govern- 
ment should  own  Oregon,  the  English  reserved  for  a 
future  settlement.  So  the  English  flag  was  hauled 
down,  the  Stars  and  Stripes  went  up,  and  the  name 
was  changed  back  from  St.  George  to  Astoria.  This 
was  in  1818.1 

An  incident  will  show  with  what  tenacity  England 
held  to  Oregon,  and  with  what  adroitness  and  pretense 
she  struggled  for  its  possession.  When  the  question 
came  up  again,  in  1826,  who  should  own  that  territory, 
her  ministry  pleaded  that  Mr.  Bagot  was  instructed, 
privately  and  in  conversation,  to  allow  the  Americans 
to  return  to  Astoria  only  as  tenants  at  will,  and  that  he 
must  assert  the  absolute  claim  of  Great  Britain,  and 
that  an  American  settlement  on  the  Columbia  must  be 
regarded  as  an  encroachment  and  trespass.  What  she 
claimed  to  have  then  said,  in  private  and  unwritten  in- 
structions to  her  agent,  no  copy  of  which  was  made  or 
notice  served  on  the  United  States,  she  now  made  a 
basis  of  claim  to  sovereignty  in  the  country,  eight  years 
afterward.  To  make  private  and  unwritten  instructions 
to  an  agent,  held  by  him  only  in  memory,  a  basis  for  a 
claim  to  territorial  title,  has  at  least  the  merit  of  fresh- 
ness and  novelty  in  the  records  of  diplomacy. 

The  Honorable  Rufus  Choate,  that  rare  scholar  and 
jurist,  had  good  reason  for  his  words,  spoken  in  his  place 
in  the  Senate,  when,  years  afterward,  the  Oregon  ques- 
tion was  a  very  warm  one  in  Congress. 

"  Keep  your  eye  always  open,  like  the  eye  of  your 
own  eagle,  upon  the  Oregon.  Watch  day  and  night. 
If  any  new  developments  of  policy  break  forth,  meet 

1  Message  of  President  Monroe,  April  17,  1822,  and  accompanying 
Documents. 

5 


66     OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

them.  If  the  times  change,  do  you  change.  New  things 
in  a  new  world.  Eternal  vigilance  is  the  condition  of 
empire  as  well  as  of  liberty." 

Although  Astoria  was  ceremonially  restored,  the 
Northwest  Company  of  fur-traders  continued  to  occupy 
it  till  1845 —  twenty-seven  years  —  so  finely  and  tedi- 
ously can  the  threads  of  diplomatic  delays  be  spun  out 
and  woven.  Before  it  was  surrendered  they  had  made 
it  a  formidable  stronghold.  It  was  a  stockade  fort,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  by  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  with 
post  walls  twelve  feet  high,  and  two  bastions  on  diag- 
onal corners.  It  was  defended  by  two  eighteen-poun- 
ders,  six  six-pounders,  four  four-pound  carronades,  two 
six-pound  cohorns  and  seven  swivels.  It  was  manned 
by  twenty-three  whites,  sixteen  half-breed  Canadians, 
and  twenty-six  Sandwich  Islanders. 

Such  a  military  post  was  a  threatening  declaration  of 
intention  to  hold  the  Columbia  and  its  basin,  and  it  was 
at  the  same  time  a  fair  index  of  the  manner  and  spirit 
with  which  the  country  in  dispute  was  monopolized.  Yet 
at  the  same  time  the  English  were  a  party  to  the  treaty 
of  joint  occupation,  in  which  neither  should  monopolize 
to  the  damage  of  the  other,  or  take  steps  toward  a 
permanent  occupancy.  Inland  lines  of  trade,  attached 
to  small  centres  and  knotted  together  in  little  posts  and 
huts  here  and  there,  were  embracing  Oregon  as  with 
a  net.  Not  only  were  the  Indians  won  over  to  the 
English  side,  but  they  were  made  to  feel  that  they  had 
no  right  to  trade  with  the  Americans,  and  the  pernicious 
idea  was  carried,  wide  and  clear,  through  all  the  tribes, 
that  the  Americans  would  take  their  lands,  while  the 
English  wished  only  to  trade  in  furs. 

To  such  an  extent  were  the  Indians  thus  prejudiced 


FACE   TO  FACE:   AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND.       67 

• 
and  alienated,  that  the  citizens  of   the  United  States 

were  obliged  not  only  to  renounce  all  ideas  of  renewing 
their  establishments  in  that  part  of  America,  but  even 
to  withdraw  their  vessels  from  its  coasts.  For  more 
than  ten  years  after  Astoria  was  sold  out,  it  would  have 
been  difficult  to  find  an  American  in  the  country.  In 
his  "  History  of  Oregon  and  California  "  Greenhow  says 
that  when  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  was  before  Par- 
liament in  1837  for  the  renewal  of  its  charter,  they 
"  claimed  and  received  the  aid  and  consideration  of 
government  for  their  energy  and  success  in  expelling 
the  Americans  from  the  Columbia  regions,  and  forming 
settlements  there,  by  means  of  which  they  were  rapidly 
converting  Oregon  into  a  British  colony." 

While  the  Treaty  of  Ghent,  1814,  restored  Astoria 
to  the  United  States,  that  place  was  not  distinctly 
named,  but  embraced  in  the  general  phrase,  "  all  terri- 
tory, place  and  possessions  whatsoever,  taken  by  either 
party."  There  is  no  allusion  in  the  treaty  to  the  north- 
west coast,  or  to  any  territory  west  of  the  Lake  of  the 
Woods.  The  American  plenipotentiaries  at  Ghent  were 
under  instructions  to  concede  no  lands  to  Great  Britain 
south  of  the  forty-ninth  parallel.  The  question  of  the 
boundary  line  west  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  was  intro- 
duced by  the  American  commissioners,  and  in  the  same 
form  in  which  it  failed  when  the  almost  consummated 
treaty  of  1807  failed.  That  proposition  was,  to  extend 
the  boundary  west  of  the  Lake  on  forty-nine  "  as  far  as 
their  said  respective  territories  extend  in  that  quarter," 
and  yet  not  far  enough  to  bound  territory  claimed  by 
either  west  of  the  mountains.  Both  governments 
agreed  then  to  this,  but  the  English  violence  to  the 
American  frigate  Chesapeake  staged  proceedings,  and 
the  treaty  was  not  ratified. 


68      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

When  this  proposition  was  renewed  in  1814  at  Ghent, 
the  English  commissioners  agreed  to  accept  it,  provided 
it  be  added  that  the  subjects  of  Great  Britain  might 
reach  the  Mississippi  through  American  territory,  and 
navigate  it  to  the  sea.  Of  course  this  was  declined,  and 
so  the  Treaty  of  Ghent  has  no  reference  to  territory  or 
boundary  west  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods. 

As  often  as  occasion  warranted,  the  English  turned 
with  longing  eyes  toward  that  forbidden  Mississippi. 
Its  majestic  current  tempted  them,  and  its  long  arms, 
thrown  up  into  the  interior  of  the  continent  and  taking 
tribute  from  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
offered  to  carry  their  merchandise.  When  a  steamer 
has  run  up  from  its  mouths  below  New  Orleans  as  far  as 
from  Liverpool  to  New  York,  it  is  still  as  far  from  high- 
water  navigation,  above  Fort  Benton,  as  the  Azores  are 
from  New  York.  No  wonder  they  coveted  it,  from 
Yorktown  onward,  but  they  were  compelled  to  go  to 
India  and  Egypt  for  their  large  rivers. 

These  diplomatic  incidents  are  interesting,  as  show- 
ing the  endeavors  of  the  English  in  those  early  days 
to  secure  the  natural  sources  of  power  on  the  Pacific 
slope.  We  note  specially  those  covert  efforts  to  regain 
a  footing  in  the  Great  Valley,  which  they  controlled  in 
part  for  twenty  years  after  battling  with  France  for  it 
for  sixty  years.  Many  questions  were  left  undecided  by 
the  Treaty  of  Ghent,  and  in  1818  they  were  renewed  be- 
fore a  joint  commission  at  London,  especially  the  bound- 
ary question  from  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  west.  The 
commission  agreed  to  the  forty-ninth  parallel  as  the 
boundary  from  the  Lake  to  the  mountains. 

But  the  English  commissioners  finally,  after  mutual 
and  full  discussion  of  prior  rights  on  the  Pacific,  de- 


FACE  TO  FACE:  AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND.      69 

clared  as  an  ultimatum  that  they  would  accede  to  no 
boundary  which  did  not  give  to  England  the  mouth  of 
the  Columbia.  Then  a  joint  occupation  was  agreed  to 
in  these  words  :  — 

"  It  is  agreed  that  any  country  that  may  be  claimed 
by  either  party  on  the  northwestern  coast  of  America, 
westward  of  the  Stony  Mountains,  shall,  together  with 
its  harbors,  bays,  and  creeks,  and  the  navigation  of  all 
rivers  within  the  same,  be  free  and  open  for  the  term  of 
ten  years  from  the  date  of  the  signature  of  the  present 
convention  to  the  vessels,  citizens,  and  subjects  of  the 
two  powers,"  etc. 

That  was  a  most  unfortunate  move  for  Great  Britain. 
Ultimately  it  lost  her  the  prize  at  stake.  In  that  signa- 
ture she  signed  away  any  chance  she  had  to  that  mag- 
nificent domain.  True,  the  compromise  on  joint  occu- 
pation gave  to  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  a  practical 
monopoly  of  the  fur-trade.  It  was  now  in  possession 
of  this,  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  parties  and  in- 
terests. But  the  policy  of  this  company  was  really  hostile 
to  English  and  national  interests.  It  was  to  cultivate  wil- 
derness and  not  civilization,  trading  huts  and  not  settle- 
ments, half-breeds  and  not  English  families.  This  was 
the  fatal  mistake  of  the  government.  Those  august  ne- 
gotiations were  inspired  and  consummated  in  the  inter- 
ests of  beaver  and  not  of  men.  They  secured  to  one  cor- 
poration the  monopoly  to  continue  to  introduce,  as  they 
had  for  a  century  and  a  half,  at  York  Factory,  Athabas- 
ca, Fort  Pelley,  and  Methey  Portage,  tea  and  raw  spirits, 
trade  guns,  fishing  and  trapping  gear,  calico,  duffle,  and 
gewgaws.  As  we  have  shown  before,  the  orders  for 
goods  were  scarcely  varied  for  a  century.  Sometimes 
the  monotony  of  the  clerkly  work  at  both  ends  of  the 


70      OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

line  was  pleasantly  broken  by  an  order  on  the  London 
house  for  a  wife.  This  was  the  only  resort  for  the 
bachelor,  except  the  ordinary  course  of  selecting  from 
the  wilderness.  Interests  in  the  great  fur  land  would 
not  allow  an  absence  of  from  two  to  six  years  for  a  wife, 
when  one  could  be  selected  to  order,  like  raw  spirits  or 
calico,  and  be  received  and  receipted  for  "  in  good  con- 
dition." ! 

The  Fur  Company  would  keep  back  the  rude  im- 
plements of  an  opening  husbandry,  and  the  humble,  vir- 
tuous beginnings  of  domestic  life  and  strong  citizenship. 
The  English  commissioners  made  a  blunder  when  they 
imagined  that  a  steel-trap  would  possess  and  hold  the 
disputed  territory  better  than  a  spade,  and  that  a 
beaver  dam  in  North  America  was  worth  more  to  the 
English  crown  than  a  factory  dam.  When  too  late,  as 
we  shall  soon  see,  the  English  ministry  attempted  to  re- 
cover from  this  fatal  error. 

l  Robinson's  Great  Fur  Land,  p.  67. 


CHAPTER  X. 

AMERICAN   SPEECHES,   ENGLISH   STEEL-TRAPS,   AND 
DIPLOMACY. 

IN  the  Louisiana  Purchase,  the  southwestern  line  be- 
tween that  territory  and  the  Spanish  possessions  was  left 
not  only  poorly  known,  but  quite  indefinitely  described. 
The  conferences  of  the  powers  bordering  on  that 
line  were  protracted  through  years,  and  at  times  they 
were  not  pleasant.  The  Florida  Purchase  gave  a  good  op- 
portunity to  fix  that  boundary,  as  it  did,  on  parchment. 

The  parallel  of  forty- two  on  the  Pacific  was  fixed  as 
the  dividing  line  running  east  from  that  Ocean  to  a  point 
due  north  or  south,  as  the  facts  might  require,  to  the 
source  of  the  Arkansas ;  down  this  river  to  longitude 
one  hundred ;  on  that  parallel  south  till  it  strikes  the 
Red  River ;  down  the  Red  River  to  longitude  ninety- 
four  ;  due  south  on  it  to  the  Sabine  River  ;  and  down  the 
Sabine  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  This  boundary  affirmed 
the  southern  limits  of  Oregon,  and  so  aided  to  give  out- 
line and  definiteness  to  the  coveted  land  of  our  narrative. 

In  the  attempts  made  by  the  coterminous  nations  to 
survey  and  mark  off  this  line  with  bounds,  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Sabine  to  Oregon  tide- water,  where  it 
washes  the  continent  on  precisely  latitude  forty-two, 
there  were  various  delays,  as  there  had  been  from  1803, 
in  the  attempt  to  outline  the  same  on  paper  by  verbal 
description.  It  was  well  understood  that  Spain  was 


72     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

greatly  dissatisfied  at  the  transfer  of  the  Louisiana  to  a 
republic,  and  was  greatly  displeased  with  France  for  mak- 
ing the  transfer.  Hence  there  was  an  apparent  deter- 
mination on  her  part  not  to  agree  to  its  southern  boun- 
dary, while  she  waited  and  hoped  for  some  contingencies 
that  might  possibly  recover  it  from  republican  hands. 
These  delays  continued  to  the  close  of  the  Mexican  war. 
when,  in  1848,  the  United  States  became  owner  on  the 
other  side  of  the  unrun  line.  Then,  as  the  metes  and 
bounds  were  not  needed,  they  were  never  run  out  and  set. 

Congressional  discussions  and  negotiations  between 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  followed  close  and 
continuous  on  the  Florida  Treaty  of  1818,  but  with  little 
progress  and  less  result.  Only  events  made  progress, 
and  as  these  could  not  be  brought  within  the  compass 
and  control  of  statesmen,  the  Oregon  question  moved  on 
silently  to  its  close. 

In  1820  an  inquiry  was  raised  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives as  to  the  condition  of  American  interests  on 
the  Pacific,  and  the  expediency  of  occupying,  in  a  sub- 
stantial way,  the  Columbia.  An  able  report  was  secured, 
with  a  recommendation  to  establish  "  small  trading 
guards  "  on  the  Missouri  and  Columbia,  and  to  secure 
immigration  to  Oregon  from  the  United  States  and  from 
China.  The  papers  went  to  the  table  for  the  remainder 
of  the  session  ;  were  revised  in  1821,  and  then  slept  again 
for  two  years.  In  December,  1823,  the  announcement 
of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  tended  to  quicken  discussion  on 
Oregon  in  both  Congress  aiid  Parliament,  and  to  retard 
negotiations.  A  special  committee  was  raised  in  Con- 
gress to  consider  the  military  occupation  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia.  The  committee  recommended  that 
two  hundred  men  be  dispatched  immediately  overland, 


SPEECHES,  STEEL-TRAPS,  AND  DIPLOMACY.     73 

and  two  vessels  with  military  supplies  and  stores  be  sent 
to  fortify  and  hold  that  place.  They  also  proposed  that 
four  or  five  military  posts  be  established  at  Council 
Bluffs  and  on  the  Pacific. 

Council  Bluffs  was  then  the  most  frontier  military 
post  of  the  United  States,  but  is  now  a  thriving  city 
in  the  east,  that  is,  in  the  eastern  half  of  our  country. 
Lippincott's  Gazetteer  of  1856  locates  it  "in  the  In- 
dian Territory,  on  the  west  bank  of  Missouri  River,  at 
the  highest  point  to  which  steamboats  ascend."  This 
does  very  well  for  scholarship  and  business  that  con- 
fine travel  and  study  to  Colony  times  and  the  eastern 
States.  There  are  but  two  mistakes.  Council  Bluffs  is 
put  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  Missouri,  and  about  twenty- 
eight  hundred  miles  only  short  of  "  the  highest  point  to 
which  steamboats  ascend." 

The  papers  were  printed,  and  more  action  seems  to 
have  been  had  on  them  abroad  than  at  home.  In  the 
House  nothing  was  done.  The  inaction  left  affairs  to 
assume  the  best  possible  shape  for  the  United  States, 
and  this  came,  yet  not  of  the  foresight  and  plans  of  states- 
men. There  appeared  to  be  a  lack  of  appreciation  of 
the  case,  and  there  was  a  skepticism  and  lethargy  con- 
cerning that  half  of  the  Union,  which  have  by  no  means 
yet  disappeared. 

The  year  following,  negotiations  were  again  opened 
at  London,  and  for  a  brief  time  Mr.  Rush  claimed  for 
the  United  States  from  the  forty-second  to  the  fifty-first 
parallels,  which  section  would  embrace  all  the  waters 
feeding  the  Columbia.  This  was  apparently  on  the 
European  theory  that  the  discovery  of  the  mouth  of  a 
river  carries  its  entire  basin.  The  English  plenipoten- 
tiaries replied  that  their  government  would  never  yield 


74       OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

the  northern  half  of  that  basin,  and  they  proposed  the 
Columbia  as  the  boundary,  beginning  on  it  where  paral- 
lel forty-nine  strikes  it.  Mr.  Rush  added  the  proposi- 
tion of  ten  years'  joint  occupation,  and  that  the  Ameri- 
cans should  found  no  posts  north  of  the  fifty-first  paral- 
lel, or  the  English  south  of  it.  But  there  was  a  mutual 
rejection  of  all  propositions,  and  so  this  negotiation 
closed.  It  was  a  gain,  however,  that  each  party  had 
defined  its  claims  and  made  offers,  and  so  the  question 
took  on  outlines,  or  limits,  which  was  one  good  step 
toward  a  settlement. 

President  Monroe  in  his  last  message  — 1824  —  called 
attention  to  the  military  occupation  of  the  country  in 
dispute,  and  recommended  a  survey  of  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia,  and  regions  adjacent,  by  a  board  of  civil  en- 
gineers. President  Adams  did  the  same  the  next  year. 
These  recommendations  produced  two  elaborate  reports, 
setting  forth  the  history,  geography,  climate,  soil,  furs 
and  other  products  of  that  region,  and  also  the  cost 
of  the  proposed  military  establishments  and  the  probable 
expense  for  maintaining  them.  A  bill  favorable  and 
corresponding  was  introduced,  and  then  Oregon  slept 
again  in  the  halls  of  Congress  till  1828. 

Meanwhile  the  joint  occupation  for  ten  years  was 
drawing  to  a  close,  and  events  compelled  action  outside. 
In  1821  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  and  the  Northwest 
Company  had  united,  and  by  the  union  expensive  rival- 
ry, over-paying  and  under-selling,  litigation,  and  not  in- 
frequent bloody  conflicts,  came  to  an  end.  The  enlarged 
Hudson  Bay  Company  could  now  cover  the  northern 
parts  of  North  America  with  great  power  and  compre- 
hensiveness and  detail.  Not  only  through  the  British 
Provinces,  but  through  the  northern  parts  of  the  United 


SPEECHES,   STEEL-TRAPS,  AND  DIPLOMACY.     75 

States  their  trappers  and  boats  and  agents  were  scattered, 
and  their  semi  -  military  factories  were  near  enough  to- 
gether to  receive  the  furs,  furnish  goods  in  exchange 
and  guaranty  defenses. 

Of  course,  at  the  end  of  the  ten  years,  Oregon  was 
mainly  British  in  its  occupants,  business,  and  profits. 
Indeed,  when  the  question  of  joint  occupation  was  forced 
into  notice  by  the  near  expiration  of  the  first  agreement, 
the  English  plenipotentiaries  say,  in  an  elaborate  state- 
ment of  their  side  of  the  case  :  "  In  the  interior  of  the 
territory  in  question  the  subjects  of  Great  Britain  have 
had,  for  many  years,  numerous  settlements  and  trading- 
posts  —  several  of  these  posts  on  the  tributary  streams 
of  the  Columbia,  several  upon  the  Columbia  itself,  some 
to  the  northward,  and  others  to  the  southward  of  that 
river.  ...  In  the  whole  of  the  territory  in  question 
the  citizens  of  the  United  States  have  not  a  single  set- 
tlement or  trading-post.  They  do  not  use  that  river, 
either  for  the  purpose  of  transmitting  or  receiving  any 
produce  of  their  own  to  or  from  other  parts  of  the 
world." l 

During  this  conference  the  old  offer  of  each  party 
was  made  over  again  with  variations,  the  English  te- 
naciously adhering  to  the  river  boundary.  To  aid  hi 
this  they  offered,  additionally,  a  section  lying  on  and 
about  the  Straits  of  Fuca,  from  Bullfinch's  Bay  to 
Hood's  Canal.  But  no  decision  on  boundaries  could  be 
reached,  and  the  negotiations  ended  in  extending  the 
agreement  of  joint  occupation  indefinitely,  terminable 
by  either  on  notice  of  one  year. 

1  For  a  full  statement  of  the  English  and  the  American  sides  of  the 
Oregon  question  see  President  Adams'  Message,  December  12,  1827, 
and  Documents,  and  in  Appendix  to  Greenhow's  History,  pp.  446-465. 


76      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

This  renewal  of  the  arrangement  of  1818  was  con- 
firmed by  Congress,  but  immediately  a  great  and  pro- 
tracted debate  arose  in  that  body.  A  bill  was  reported 
in  the  House  authorizing  the  President  to  survey  the 
territory  west  of  the  mountains  between  the  parallels  of 
forty-two,  and  fifty-four  forty,  occupy  the  same  by  mili- 
tary posts  and  garrisons,  and  extend  the  laws  of  the 
United  States  over  it.  The  bill  was  lost,  and  very  lit- 
tle interest  on  the  subject  showed  itself  again  in  Con- 
gress for  many  years. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

WESTERN  MEN  ON  THE  OREGON  TRAIL. 

THE  Oregon  question  failed  of  sympathy  in  the 
older  States,  and  eastern  interest  did  not  keep  pace 
with  western  growth.  When  it  was  a  journey  of  three 
weeks  from  New  England  to  any  point  on  the  Missis- 
sippi, it  is  not  strange  that  the  East  should  have  but  lit- 
tle knowledge  of  the  immense  domain  beyond  that  river. 
It  required  the  locomotive  to  introduce  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Father  of  Waters,  and  to  convince  the  country  east 
of  the  Alleghanies,  that  two  thirds  of  the  Republic  then 
lay  west  of  that  stream.  It  is  quite  as  difficult  now  to 
satisfy  the  East  that  only  about  one  fifth  of  our  domain 
lies  between  that  river  and  the  Atlantic.  When  "  out 
West,"  meant  the  Genesee  country  in  "  York  State,"  or 
the  Western  Reserve  in  "  the  Ohio,"  it  was  a  hard  thing 
to  appreciate  Oregon.  Our  first  railroad  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi did  not  arrive  till  1854,  —  at  Rock  Island. 
Prior  to  that  it  was  a  long  way  by  saddle  and  wagon, 
and  a  longer  and  harder  way  still  across  Missouri, 
up  the  Platte,  and  toward  the  Yellowstone.  Slowly 
and  tediously,  therefore,  Oregon  gained  a  hearing  on 
the  Atlantic  slope,  and  its  facts  and  possibilities  some- 
times had  to  crowd  their  way  into  place  and  power. 
In  truth  the  happy  and  well-regulated  family  of  states 
in  the  old  half  of  the  Union  did  not  welcome  the  found- 
ling. 


78       OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

In  the  great  Congressional  debate  that  defeated  the 
bill  last  mentioned,  it  was  urged  by  its  opponents,  that 
even  if  the  United  States  had  undisputed  title,  the  oc- 
cupation of  the  country  would  be  of  doubtful  utility, 
from  its  barrenness,  dangerous  coasts,  distance  and  in- 
accessibility from  the  States  by  either  laud  or  sea.  If 
emigration  should  settle  it,  the  defense  of  citizens 
there  would  compel  a  much  greater  outlay  than  any 
supposable  income  from  it  would  warrant.  This  line 
of  reasoning  showed  but  little  sympathy  with  a  grow- 
ing frontier.  The  logic  and  statesmanship  were  more 
provincial  than  national. 

The  conservative,  satisfied,  and  un travelled  East  has 
always  had  a  skeptical  turn  of  mind  as  to  the  extent, 
growth  of  settlement,  the  political,  and  moral  import- 
ance of  the  constantly  receding  border.  Travel  for 
pleasure  has  usually  been  directed  abroad,  and  not  in- 
land ;  and  the  new  towns  and  states,  even  as  the  rivers, 
prairies,  and  mountains  of  the  west  have  been  meas- 
ured by  the  home  standards  of  childhood. 

When  therefore  a  decision  upon  its  interest  took  the- 
ballot  form,  the  frontier  has  too  often  been  voted  as  rel- 
atively unimportant.  There  was  a  very  early  exhibition 
of  the  tendency  to  prefer  old  centres,  and  a  finished  state 
of  things,  when  the  Colonial  Legislature  of  Massachu- 
setts put  this  on  her  Records  in  1632:  "It  is  thought 
by  genal  consent,  that  Boston  is  the  fittest  place  for 
publique  meeteings  of  any  place  in  the  Bay." 

When  we  measure  the  worth  of  the  Oregon  of  1828, 
as  it  appears  to-day  for  us — Oregon,  Washington,  and 
Idaho  Territories  —  we  tremble  to  think  how  near  the 
old  states  were  to  alienating,  and  disowning,  and  losing 
that  magnificent  region. 


WESTERN  MEN  ON  THE  OREGON  TRAIL.        79 

It  was  left  for  the  west  —  often  chided,  and  even  yet, 
for  lack  of  effort  to  care  for  itself  —  to  save  the  farther 
west,  by  occupying  it  at  great  peril,  and  so  compelling 
attention  to  it.  When  bills  in  Congress  for  opening 
and  possessing  Oregon  went  to  the  table  for  a  final  rest, 
or  over  to  the  great  mass  of  rejected  papers,  energetic 
western  men  went  to  the  upper  waters  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, Missouri,  Platte,  and  Yellowstone,  in  the  fur-trade. 
Thus,  by  occupation  and  possession,  they  forced  the  dis- 
cussion of  this  question.  Having  threaded  the  head 
streams  of  those  rivers  on  the  eastern  prairies  and 
slopes,  they  began  to  trace  the  gorges  and  canons  of  the 
mountains.  The  North  American  and  the  Columbia 
Companies,  united  in  1826,  did  the  most  of  this,  and 
St.  Louis  became  the  centre  of  the  fur  trade  for  the 
United  States. 

From  the  same  city,  and  about  these  times,  those  great 
caravans  had  begun  to  start  off  on  the  Santa  Fe  trail 
into  New  Mexico.  Eminent  in  this  foreign  trade  were 
Bent  and  St.  Vrain,  while  Ashley  led  the  way  into  the 
extreme  west,  and  finally  over  the  mountains  into  the 
great  central  basin.  It  was  in  1823  that  Ashley  scattered 
his  hardy  men  on  the  Sweet  Water,  a  branch  of  the 
Platte,  and  on  Green  River,  one  of  the  heads  of  the 
Colorado.  In  the  year  following  he  planted  a  trading- 
post  near  Salt  Lake.  This  was  twelve  hundred  miles 
from  St.  Louis  —  the  equivalent  of  twelve  thousand  now 
—  and  to  it  in  1826  he  hauled  a  six-pound  cannon —  the 
first  to  waken  those  mountain-slumbers  of  ages.  Wag- 
ons followed  in  1828.  That  was  a  significant  year  and 
event,  for  then  the  Republic  began  to  go  over  the  moun- 
tains and  at  that  time  took  one  of  its  long  and  strong 
steps  toward  the  Pacific.  Perhaps  the  wagons,  at  sight 


80      OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

of  which  the  spirit  of  Jacob  revived,  were  not  better 
loaded  for  the  human  family. 

When  Ashley's  company  sent  to  St.  Louis  furs  to  the 
value  of  $180,000  as  the  product  of  one  year,  it  created 
a  profound  impression,  and  the  Rock}'  Mountain  Com- 
pany was  one  result,  prominent  in  which  was  the  early 
St.  Louis  name  of  Sublette.  This  company  traversed 
and  traded  along  the  southern  branches  of  the  Columbia 
and  through  the  most  of  California. 

The  energy,  daring,  and  service  of  the  western  men 
of  those  times  in  hastening  and  aiding  the  Oregon  ques- 
tion to  settlement,  are  well  illustrated  in  Mr.  Pilcher. 
He  left  Council  Bluffs  in  1827,  with  forty-five  men  and 
one  hundred  horses ;  wintered  in  Colorado  ;  in  the  sum- 
mer following  was  on  Lewis  River  and  along  the  north- 
western base  of  the  mountains;  in  1829  came  down 
Clark's  River  to  Fort  Colville,  a  Hudson  Bay  post, 
thence  by  the  heads  of  the  Colombia,  the  Athabasca,  and 
Red  Rivers  to  the  upper  Missouri,  and  so  returned  to 
the  States.1 

Eminent  among  the  western  men  who  did  so  much  to 
diffuse  information  and  stimulate  interest  concerning 
Oregon  was  J.  O.  Pattie,  of  St.  Louis.  His  adventures 
in  the  fur-trade  led  him  through  the  New  Mexico  of 
those  days,  and  Sonora  and  Chihuahua  of  old  Mexico. 
He  went  up  and  down  the  Colorado  and  along  the  Gulf 
of  California.  His  narrative  was  published  in  1832, 
and  the  knowledge  of  those  unknown  regions  which  it 
revealed,  the  wild  incidents  which  it  detailed,  and  the 
sources  which  it  opened  to  adventurers,  stirred  quite  an 
excitement  in  the  border  states,  and  created  a  passion 
to  explore  the  wild  west  and  engage  in  the  fur  and 
Indian  trades. 
1  Documents  with  message  of  President  Jackson,  January  23,  1829. 


WESTERN  MEN  ON  THE  OREGON  TRAIL.        81 

Captain  Bonueville,  of  the  array,  may  be  mentioned 
in  this  connection.  He  led  his  ono  hundred  men  and 
more,  with  their  wagons  and  goods,  from  the  Missouri 
to  the  Colorado,  and  even  to  the  Columbia.  It  was  a 
two  years'  romance  in  trapping  and  trading  and  explor- 
ing. Only  experience  can  give  one  a  tolerable  idea  of 
the  excitement  and  joy  and  intense  feeling  of  liberty 
which  one  feels,  when  roaming  thus  at  one's  own  wild 
will,  beyond  the  borders  of  highways  and  fences,  laws 
and  cabins,  locks  and  keys,  where  dinner  is  ordered  by 
the  rifle,  tables  are  spread  under  the  trees,  and  beda 
under  the  stars. 

It  was  not  the  west  alone  that  pressed  these  individual 
and  company  enterprises  over  the  borders,  and  compelled 
Oregon  to  come  into  sight  and  the  east  to  see  it.  Under 
the  quiet,  scholarly,  and  conservative  elms  of  Old  Cam- 
bridge in  the  extreme  east,  there  sprang  a  passion  for 
Oregon,  which  took  shape  in  an  emigrating  company 
in  1832  under  Nathaniel  J.  Wyeth.  The  writings  of 
Hall  J.  Kelly  did  much  to  stimulate  and  set  forward 
this  enterprise.  The  company  of  twenty- two  persona 
was  a  novel  affair,  and  had  in  it  more  of  the  Yankee 
than  was  found  useful  out  west.  Near  a  college,  and 
books,  where  men  on  the  streets  spoke  a  dozen  lan- 
guages, and  in  the  shops  were  very  scientific  mechanics, 
the  company  got  up  a  vehicle,  half  and  half.  Bottom 
up  it  was  a  wagon,  the  other  side  up  it  was  a  boat ;  it 
had  oars  ;  it  had  wheels.  It  was  a  mechanical  hybrid, 
an  amphibious  vehicle,  and  took  to  land  or  water  with 
equal  delight.  Indeed,  the  men  of  those  classic  shades 
called  it  the  "  Amphibiura."  The  boys  of  those  same 
shades,  who  have  a  keen  perception  of  novelties,  and 
who  knew  the  oddities  in  the  make-up  of  Mr.  Wyeth, 
6 


82      OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

called  it  the  "  Natwyetheum."  There  were  three  built, 
and  they  put  out  from  Old  Cambridge  for  Oregon,  with 
all  their  motley  freight  of  "  notions  "  to  match. 

"  O'er  bog,  or  steep,  thro'  straight,  rough,  dense,  or  rare 
With  head,  hands,  wings,  or  feet,  pursues  his  way, 
And  swims,  or  sinks,  or  wades,  or  creeps,  or  flies." 

No  wonder  the  company  experienced  some  difficulties 
in  the  German  neighborhoods  as  they  passed  the  Alle- 
ghanies.  Says  the  narrative  :  "  Here  we  experienced  a 
degree  of  iuhospitality  not  met  with  among  the  savages. 
The  innkeepers,  when  they  found  that  we  came  from 
New  England,  betrayed  an  unwillingness  to  accommo- 
date Yankees."  They  refused  refreshment  and  lodgings, 
locked  their  bar-rooms,  and  even  stood  guard  with  rifles 
in  hand.  What  else  could  those  Dutchmen  do  or  think, 
as  they  saw  those  machines  climbing  the  mountains? 
No  wonder  the  Dutchmen  were  afraid.  Two  years  be- 
fore the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  over  which  the 
company  had  come  sixty  miles,  so  far  as  complete  then, 
had  been  trying  to  run  cars  by  sails,  and  now  here  were 
these  three  vehicles  —  a  cross  between  an  omnibus  and 
a  boat !  Forty-nine  days  brought  them  to  St.  Louis  and 
to  their  senses,  where  the  wise  men  of  the  east  became 
practical,  and  abandoned  the  "Amphibium"  and  the 
most  of  its  knickknackery. 

It  is  said  by  those  who  have  lived  on  both  sides  of  the 
Mississippi,  that  there  are  more  Boston  notions  east  of 
that  river  than  west  of  it.  Father  Wiggin's  ferry  used 
to  carry  them  over,  in  small  quantities,  in  trunk  or  head, 
more  generally  than  does  the  present  magnificent  St. 
Louis  bridge. 

By  steamer  Otter  to  Independence,  two  hundred  and 
sixty  miles,  and  thence  out  upon  the  prairie,  they  pressed 


WESTERN  MEN  ON  THE   OREGON  TRAIL.        83 

on,  and  our  Cambridge  friends  were  well  on  the  way  for 
Oregon.  Fortunately  they  then  came  under  convoy  of 
William  Sublette  and  company,  a  Rocky  Mountain 
trader,  wise  in  wood-craft  and  aborigines.  Mr.  Wyeth 
soon  found  himself  among  the  Indians,  and  at  once  saw 
the  difference  between  the  eastern  and  western  Indian 
—  the  one  being  a  book  Indian,  full  of  sentiment  and 
high  romance,  and  the  other  a  live  Indian,  of  dirt,  paint, 
and  a  tomahawk.  Ere  long  this  tramping  for  Oregon 
became  a  plain  matter  of  fact.  The  poetry  was  at  Cam- 
bridge, and  the  reality  on  the  prairies.  On  the  Fourth 
of  July  they  drank  the  health  of  the  nation  in  water 
from  Lewis'  Fork  of  the  Columbia.  But  they  were  a 
sad  company,  and  would  have  preferred  the  frog-pond 
on  Boston  Common.  The  experienced  Sublette  and 
his  hardy  mountain  boys  were  soon  to  part  with  them 
for  their  trading  and  trapping  stations,  and  what  with 
sickness,  disappointment,  criticism,  and  insubordination, 
they  were  nearly  ready  to  break  up  and  scatter. 

As  they  went  down  Boston  harbor  to  camp  for  ten 
days,  on  one  of  the  islands,  and  learn  to  endure  hard- 
ship, they  made  quite  a  showy  and  attractive  appear- 
ance, in  uniform  suits,  with  a  broad  belt  carrying  a 
bayonet,  knife,  and  axe.  Now  they  were  twenty-two 
different  persons,  haggard,  soiled,  and  dejected,  with 
many  a  Joseph's  coat  among  them  replacing  the  uni- 
form, and  not  much  coveted  by  envious  brothers. 

Here  the  company  divided,  and  seven  of  them  turned 
their  backs  on  Oregon,  among  whom  were  Jacob  and 
John,  brothers  of  Captain  Wyeth.  The  latter  pushed 
forward  and,  with  other  mountain  men  who  joined  him, 
established  Fort  Hall  on  Snake  River,  about  one  hun- 
dred miles  north  of  Salt  Lake.  The  reader  should  fix 


84     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

this  fort  in  his  mind,  for  we  shall  have  much  to  do  with 
it  in  our  narrative.  The  Hudson  Bay  Company  at  once 
established  a  rival  post  called  Fort  Boise,  below  Fort 
Hall,  and  easily  ruined  the  enterprise  of  Mr.  Wyeth  by 
a  sacrificing  competition. 

In  a  memoir  of  Mr.  Wyeth l  to  a  Congressional  Com- 
mittee he  says  that  "experience  has  satisfied  me  that 
the  entire  weight  of  this  Company  will  be  made  to  bear 
on  any  trader  who  shall  attempt  to  prosecute  his  busi- 
ness within  its  reach.  .  .  .  No  sooner  does  an  Amer- 
ican concern  start  in  this  region  than  one  of  these  trad- 
ing parties  is  put  in  motion.  A  few  years  will  make 
the  country  west  of  the  mountains  as  completely  Eng- 
lish as  they  can  desire." 

Another  person  long  conversant  with  affairs  in  Ore- 
gon, and  of  the  United  States  navy,  William  A.  Slocum, 
reported  to  the  same  Committee  "  that  no  individual  en- 
terprise can  compete  with  this  immense  foreign  monop- 
oly established  in  our  waters.  .  .  .  The  Indians  are 
taught  to  believe  that  no  vessels  but  the  Company's  ships 
are  allowed  to  trade  in  the  river,  and  most  of  them  are 
afraid  to  sell  their  skins  but  at  Vancouver  or  Fort 
George." 

Hence  it  came  about  that  the  Americans  west  of  the 
mountains  at  this  time  seldom  exceeded  two  hundred, 
and  they  were  beyond  all  cover  of  United  States  laws. 
No  form  of  law,  even  the  most  prospective  and  shadowy, 
followed  them.  Their  protection  against  man  as  well 
as  brute  was  in  their  own  hands.  Yet  around  Vancou- 
ver alone  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  had  seven  or  eight 
hundred  men.  These  were  European,  Canadian,  half- 
breed,  and  Indian,  but  subject  to  the  Fort.  Over  all  the 
1  Report  House  of  Representatives,  No.  101,  February  16,  1839. 


WESTERN  MEN  ON  THE  OREGON  TRAIL.        85 

region  covered  by  that  Company,  Canadian  law  was  ex- 
tended by  act  of  Parliament.  No  post  was  beyond  this 
code  of  laws,  and  no  individual  in  the  employ  of  the 
Company  lacked  it. 

While,  therefore,  the  terms  of  joint  occupation  provided 
for  equality  between  the  two  parties,  the  practical  work- 
ing was  a  monopoly  by  one.  Not  only  was  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  vital  and  active  at 
every  point  where  their  employes  were,  but  its  magni- 
tude made  it  formidable.  Beginning  at  Astoria,  it  cov- 
ered the  heads  of  the  Columbia,  east  to  Salt  Lake,  north 
to  the  Athabasca  and  Saskatchawan,  and  so  on  to  York 
Factory  on  Hudson  Bay ;  and  still  later,  in  1839,  Mr. 
Wyeth  says  that  "  the  United  States,  as  a  nation,  are 
unknown  west  of  the  mountains."  As  early  as  1834 
the  Hudson  Bay  Company  had  over  two  thousand  men 
in  the  various  branches  of  their  business.  The  most  of 
them  had  half-breed  families  ;  and  over  all  the  Company 
had  full  authority,  always  injurious  and  often  disastrous 
to  all  others  who  attempted  to  trade  or  settle  in  the  coun- 
try. Americans  were  not  allowed  to  traffic  within  sev- 
eral hundred  miles  of  a  Hudson  Bay  post ;  and  Simpson, 
agent,  and  for  a  long  time  governor  of  the  Company, 
said  they  were  "  resolved,  even  at  the  cost  of  one  hun- 
dred thousand  pounds  sterling,  to  expel  the  Americans 
from  traffic  on  that  coast."  At  this  time  they  had  over 
twenty  posts. 

Possibly  an  American  company,  consolidated  out  of 
these  we  have  mentioned,  protected  and  patronized  by 
the  government,  could  have  become  a  successful  rival  of 
the  English  one  in  Oregon.  But  it  is  not  in  the  genius 
of  our  government  to  do  such  things.  A  gigantic  monop- 
oly comes  more  naturally  from  a  monarchical  govern- 


86     OREGON:    THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

ment,  while  our  democratic  theory  leaves  privilege  and 
success  to  be  divided  as  the  fruit  of  individual  toil  and 
competition.  As  will  be  seen,  this,  rather  than  the  mo- 
nopolies that  are  the  gifts  of  kings,  won  the  day. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    GREAT   ENGLISH    MISTAKE. 

THE  "  British  and  Foreign  Review"  of  1844  made  this 
frank  and  wide-reaching  admission  concerning  the  Hud- 
son Bay  Company :  "  The  interests  of  the  Company 
are  of  course  adverse  to  colonization.  .  .  .  The  fur- 
trade  has  been  hitherto  the  only  channel  for  the  advan- 
tageous investments  of  capital  in  those  regions."  This  is 
an  exact  statement,  by  an  English  authority,  of  the  fun- 
damental mistake  of  Great  Britain,  in  her  endeavors  to 
secure  Oregon.  In  the  English  view  of  the  case,  Ru- 
pert's Land,  originally,  and  all  wild  land  contiguous, 
and  occupied  by  this  Company,  was  reserved  for  fur,  and 
the  fur  was  reserved  by  charter  of  1670  for  the  Hudson 
Bay  Company.  First  and  last  and  always,  the  end  was 
the  skin  of  a  wild  animal,  and  this  Company  had  the  del- 
egated sovereignty  of  Great  Britain  to  control  the  coun- 
try for  raising  this  animal,  and  the  only  and  absolute 
right  to  catch  and  skin  it.  One  outside  the  Company 
had  no  legal  right  to  catch,  buy,  or  sell  the  article.  Any 
colony,  cultivation,  clearing,  or  residence  was  to  be  for- 
bidden and  abated  as  an  encroachment  and  infringement. 
The  nature,  extent,  and  absolutism  of  this  monopoly 
can  hardly  be  overstated.  No  one  unconnected  with 
the  Company  could  "  visit,  haunt,  frequent,  trade,  traf- 
fic, or  adventure  "  in  it. 

The  charter  covered  the  grand  basin  of  Hudson  Bay, 


88      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION: 

and  the  grant  of  exclusive  trade  finally  extended  from 
the  Canadas  to  the  Arctic,  and  westward  to  the  Pacific, 
embracing  what  the  Company  called  "  Indian  coun- 
tries." Over  so  much  of  North  America  this  monopoly 
of  trade  and  monarchy  of  government  extended,  and 
everything  was  made  subservient  to  the  growth,  capture, 
and  sale  of  fur.  The  extent  of  the  monopoly  granted 
by  Louis  XIV.  to  Crozat  was  immense,  embracing  the 
valleys  of  the  Ohio,  Mississippi,  and  Missouri.  But  this 
grant  of  Charles  II.  to  Prince  Rupert  was  immensely 
more  extensive. 

It  was  the  interest  and  policy  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  to  hold  back  all  this  country  from  settlement 
and  civilization,  and  continue  it  in  wilderness  as  a  grand 
and  private  game  preserve.  Down  the  ages  it  was  to  be 
kept  for  the  raising  of  beaver  and  muskrat,  mink,  bear, 
and  otter.  Its  primeval  solitudes  were  not  to  be  in- 
vaded by  white  men,  nor  its  silence  of  thousands  of  years 
to  be  broken,  except  as  licensed  men  should  go  in  qui- 
etly to  bring  out  fur.  At  York  Factory  and  the  Norway 
House,  Moose  Fort  and  Fort  Simpson,  Pelley,  Van- 
couver, and  Garry,  a  little  bustle  and  a  Canadian 
boat-song  were  tolerated  once  or  twice  a  year,  by  bat- 
teaux  brigades  and  dog-trains.  But  the  coming  and 
going  of  these  were  as  if  by  stealth,  lest  they  scare  the 
game ;  and  then  silence  settled  down  over  those  lone 
lands  again,  with  the  stillness  and  shadow  of  an  eclipse. 
The  call  of  herdsmen  and  the  varied  sounds  of  farm- 
work,  the  echo  of  mechanics  and  the  sweet  voices  of 
village  life,  were  withheld  by  royal  charter  from  these 
regions. 

A  missionary  at  Moose  Factory  writes :  "  A  plan 
which  I  had  devised  for  educating  and  training  to  some 


THE  GREAT  ENGLISH  MISTAKE.  89 

acquaintance  with  agriculture  native  children,  was  dis- 
allowed. ...  A  proposal  made  for  forming  a  small 
Indian  village  njear  Moose  Factory  was  not  acceded  to ; 
and  instead,  permission  only  given  to  attempt  the  loca- 
tion of  one  or  two  old  men,  no  longer  fit  for  engaging 
in  the  chase,  it  being  carefully  and  distinctly  stated,  by 
Sir  George  Simpson,  that  the  Company  would  not  give 
them  even  a  spade  toward  commencing  their  new  mode 
of  life." 

Care  was  taken  by  the  Company  that  local  property 
should  not  be  acquired  by  individuals,  so  as  to  form 
social  and  village  centres  and  thus  plant  the  germs  of 
civilization.  Their  employes  were  not  allowed  to  ac- 
quire any  property  or  income  beyond  their  salary.  As 
agriculture  and  the  gain  of  money  by  any  private  labor 
were  forbidden,  the  products  of  the  ground  were  scanty, 
and  were  furnished  only  from  the  gardens  and  fields  of 
the  officers,  and  for  their  tables.  Up  to  the  time  when 
American  missionaries  entered  Oregon  in  1834,  there 
was  no  extra  supply  of  potatoes.  It  was  a  luxury  for 
head  men  and  distinguished  visitors.  The  Company  did 
not  encourage  the  cultivation. 

As  late  as  1836,  they  opposed  the  introduction  of 
cattle,  because  meat  and  beef  tended  to  settlements  and 
civilization.  They  had  for  themselves  about  a  thousand 
head,  but  would  not  sell  one  to  the  Americans,  of  whom 
there  were  then  only  fifteen  men  in  the  territory.  They 
would  lend  a  cow,  but  required  the  calf  to  be  returned. 
The  next  year  an  arrangement  was  made,  and  ten  men 
with  about  sixteen  hundred  dollars  went  down  to  Cali- 
fornia to  bring  up  a  herd.  The  Hudson  Bay  men  put 
all  possible  obstacles  in  the  way,  but  the  Americans 
brought  up  six  hundred.  On  the  way  the  Indians  stole 


90      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

some,  and  suspicion  was  not  wanting  that  they  were 
procured  to  do  it. 

In  some  instances,  and  after  the  Americans  began  to 
introduce  farming,  the  Company  allowed  a  few  of  its 
broken-down  men  to  cultivate  the  ground  about  the 
Wallamette,  but  they  reserved  the  right  to  call  these 
men  back  at  any  time  to  their  stations.  The  Company 
under  no  circumstances  released  a  man  in  the  country, 
but  unless  he  would  renew  his  engagement  they  re- 
turned him  from  whence  he  came  —  sent  him  out  of 
the  country. 

The  plough  and  spade  and  milch  cow,  with  a  farm, 
under  warranty  deed  from  Great  Britain,  would  dis- 
turb fur-bearing  animals.  Such  a  farm  would  soon 
have  a  neighbor,  and  then  a  neighborhood.  Thus  the 
beaver-dam  might  become  a  mill-dam,  and  mankind, 
instead  of  corporators  and  stockholders,  would  take  pos- 
session of  a  country  larger  by  one  third  than  all  Europe, 
and  so  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  be  damaged. 

When  Dr.  Whitman  and  his  missionary  party  were 
entering  Oregon  in  1836,  they  met  at  Walla  Walla  J. 
K.  Townsend,  a  naturalist,  sent  out  by  a  society  in  Phil- 
adelphia to  collect  specimens  of  plants  and  birds.  He 
said  to  Dr.  Whitman :  "  The  Company  will  be  glad  to 
have  you  in  the  country,  and  your  influence  to  improve 
their  servants  and  their  native  wives  and  children.  As 
to  the  Indians  you  have  come  to  teach,  they  do  not 
want  them  to  be  any  more  enlightened.  The  Company 
now  have  absolute  control  over  them,  and  that  is  all 
they  require." 

Christian  labors  among  the  Indians,  by  different  sects, 
have  been  tolerated,  and  at  times  encouraged,  when  the 
purpose  was  to  bring  them  up  from  their  pagan  state  to 


THE  GREAT  ENGLISH  MISTAKE.       91 

a  civilized  condition,  but  they  have  been  discouraged 
whenever  the  result  tended  to  elevate  the  Indians  to 
either  principles  or  habits  inconsistent  with  the  labors 
which  the  Company  might  require.  A  moral  tone, 
family  ties,  and  local  property,  would  damage  the  divi- 
dends of  the  Hudson  Bay  stock,  if  developed  very  far, 
and  therefore  Christianizing  influences  were  not  toler- 
ated beyond  certain  points. 

The  "  Colonial  (English)  Magazine "  of  1843  puts 
this  matter  with  surprising  simplicity  and  directness  : 
"  By  a  strange  and  unpardonable  oversight  of  the  local 
officers  of  the  Company,  missionaries  of  the  United 
States  were  allowed  to  take  religious  charge  of  the 
population,  and  these  artful  men  lost  no  time,"  etc. 

An  illustration  will  show  how  necessary  it  was  to 
check  the  development  of  a  moral  and  Christian  tone 
before  it  endangered  the  profits  of  the  Company.  Mr. 
Slocum  of  the  United  States  navy  reported  to  Congress 
on  Indian  slavery  in  Oregon :  "  The  price  of  a  slave 
varies  from  five  to  fifteen  blankets.  Women  are  valued 
higher  than  men.  If  a  slave  dies  within  six  months  of 
the  purchase,  the  seller  returns  one-half  the  purchase- 
money.  .  .  .  Many  instances  have  occurred  where  a 
man  has  sold  his  own  child.  .  .  .  The  slaves  are  gener- 
ally employed  to  cut  wood,  hunt  and  fish  for  the  families 
of  the  men  employed  by  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  and 
are  ready  for  any  extra  work.  Each  man  of  the  trapping 
parties  has  from  two  to  three  slaves,  who  assist  to  hunt 
and  take  care  of  the  horses  and  camp.  They  thereby 
save  the  Company  the  expense  of  employing  at  least 
double  the  number  of  men  that  would  otherwise  be 
required  on  these  excursions.  ...  As  long  as  the  Hud- 
sou  Bay  Company  permit  their  servants  to  hold  slaves, 
the  institution  of  slavery  will  be  perpetuated." 


92      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

The  servants  of  the  Company  purchased  Indian  women, 
and  half-breed  families  were  raised.  The  Company 
found  it  for  their  profit  to  encourage  their  employes 
thus  to  marry,  as  it  attached  them  to  localities,  and  made 
them  contented  in  a  wilderness  home,  while  the  off- 
spring, as  the  children  of  a  slave-mother,  were  them- 
selves slaves,  and  became  both  profitable  and  inexpen- 
sive to  the  Company.  The  mildest  thing  that  can  be 
said  of  this  is  that  the  Company  were  slave-propagandist 
by  approbation  and  proxy.  But  then 

"  Slaves  cannot  breathe  in  England ;  if  their  lungs 

Receive  our  air,  that  moment  they  are  free. 
That 's  noble,  and  bespeaks  a  nation  proud 
And  jealous  of  the  blessing." 

In  this  struggle  for  Oregon  the  great  English  mistake 
grows  more  and  more  obvious.  To  understand  it  more 
plainly  we  must  inquire  as  to  the  amount,  quality,  and 
condition  of  the  English  blood  introduced.  Of  course 
foreign  blood,  either  European  or  American,  would 
finally  prevail.  If  British  North  America  was  to  be- 
come a  civilized  and  worthy  part  of  the  British  Empire, 
English  blood  must  do  the  work.  Here  arises  a  great 
surprise.  After  an  occupation  of  its  domain  by  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company  for  nearly  two  centuries  it  was 
found  that  the  number  of  Europeans  who  had  devoted 
their  lives  to  that  country  by  residence  in  it  was  ex- 
ceedingly small.  It  is  doubtful  whether,  between  the 
date  of  charter,  1670,  and  1840,  as  many  Europeans 
had  gone  in  there,  as  have  sometimes  landed  as  immi- 
grants, at  New  York,  in  a  single  twenty- four  hours. 

Those  who  go  in  for  the  Company  are  almost  always 
lads  or  young  men,  and  they  go  for  life.  Older  persons 
could  not  enter  thoroughly  into  the  interests  of  the 


THE  GREAT  ENGLISH  MISTAKE.  93 

Company,  and  adapt  themselves  fully  and  happily  to 
the  new  and  strange  life.  Invariably  almost,  they  go 
into  the  service  unmarried,  and  then  halve  the  blood  of 
their  children  with  the  native  Indian  races.  Those  who 
reach  prominent  positions,  do  so  when  past  middle  life, 
but  find  that  they  have  no  inclination  to  return  to  the 
European  or  American  life,  which  their  birth  and  child- 
hood offered  them.  The  domain  of  the  Company  has 
not  only  given  them  a  fortune,  but  frontier  or  wilder- 
ness tastes,  character,  and  manhood.  And  the  fortune 
is  ample  only  in  the  place  where  it  has  been  gained. 
The  millionaire  of  the  forest  would  be  a  poor  man  at 
the  Astor  or  London  West  End.  For  many  reasons 
the  retired  fur  men  remain  in  the  country,  and  become 
tho  noblesse  t)f  the  forest  —  hyphens  between  the  unciv- 
ilized and  civilized  world.  The  lowest  grade  imported 
servant  has  netted  probably  his  one  hundred  dollars  a 
year,  the  clerk  his  five  hundred,  the  chief  trader  five 
times  as  much,  and  the  chief  factor  perhaps  five  thou- 
sand dollars,  with  the  incidental  support  of  his  tawny 
family. 

While  in  active  employment  at  forts,  factories,  and 
posts,  these  isolated  communities  of  full  and  half  Euro- 
pean stock  present  a  very  peculiar  class  of  English  sub- 
jects. The  description  of  them  by  Washington  Irving 
is  as  good  yet  as  it  was  faithful  to  fact  a  hundred  years 
before  he  wrote  it.  "  The  French  merchant  at  his  trad- 
ing post  in  those  primitive  days  of  Canada  was  a  kind 
of  commercial  patriarch.  .  .  .  He  had  his  clerks,  canoe- 
men,  and  retainers  of  all  kinds,  who  lived  with  .him  on 
terms  of  perfect  sociability,  always  calling  him  by  his 
Christian  name.  He  had  his  Iiarem  of  Indian  beauties 
and  his  troops  of  half-breed  children ;  nor  was  there 


94      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

ever  wanting  a  louting  train  of  Indians,  hanging  about 
the  establishment,  eating  and  drinking  at  his  expense 
in  the  intervals  of  their  hunting  expeditions." 

Manitoba  became  a  favorite  residence  for  some  of  the 
retired  servants  of  the  company.  They  long  cherished 
the  desire  and  purpose  to  return  to  their  native  lands  to 
spend  their  closing  days.  But  man  grows  old  but  once, 
and  cannot  foretell  his  experiences  and  preferences. 
Their  desires  and  purposes  withered  with  the  lapse  of 
years,  and  the  influence  of  family  ties  foi'med  in  the 
country,  and  their  long  indulged  habits  in  the  unre- 
strained life  of  the  border,  finally  prevailed,  and  they 
constituted  an  aristocracy  of  the  wilderness  in  Manitoba. 

This  is  the  famous  Lord  Selkirk  grant,  the  scene  of 
bloody  strife  and  legal  struggles  between  the  Hudson 
Bay  and  Northwest  Companies,  prior  to  their  union  in 
1821.  Yet  even  there,  in  the  only  colony  or  settlement 
proper,  that  seemed  in  1840  to  show  personal  ownership 
in  land,  or  hint  toward  a  general  colonization  of  the  do- 
main of  the  Company,  there  were  but  about  six  thou- 
sand persons,  and  the  most  of  them  were  Indians  and 
half  breeds  ;  very  few  of  them  were  Europeans. 

Three  years  before,  when  the  Company  was  asking 
for  the  renewal  of  its  charter,  it  admitted  frankly  that 
its  efforts  to  settle  the  country  embraced  only  a  scanty 
supply  of  aged  and  worn-out  servants.  Those  of  Euro- 
pean blood  in  the  country,  all  told,  commissioned  and 
non-commissioned,  from  Hudson  Bay  to  the  Pacific, 
and  from  the  United  States  to  the  Arctic,  would  hardly 
exceed  three  thousand.  The  others  in  the  employ  of 
the  Company  were  about  one  fourth  Sandwich  Island- 
ers, one  fourth  Orkney  men,  and  the  rest  Canadian, 
Indian,  and  half-bloods  —  material  scanty  in  its  best 


THE  GREAT  ENGLISH  MISTAKE.  95 

quality,  European,  and  miserable  in  its  worst  quality, 
for  extending  civilization.  Yet  it  was  as  good  and  as 
abundant  as  the  desires  and  plans  of  the  Company  de- 
manded. 

Suppose  we  make  an  opening  here  and  there,  and 
send  glances  in,  that  we  may  see  to  what  extent  the 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  have  gone  up  into 
that  vast,  weird  land  of  fur  animals.  Two  centuries,  and 
specially  the  last  two,  are  supposed  to  do  something 
with  a  region  larger  than  Europe.  In  the  opening  of 
each  June  the  Company's  ships  drop  down  the  Thames, 
and  in  August  drop  anchor  at  York  Factory  on  Hud- 
son Bay.  Now  they  have  two  weeks,  if  plans  work 
well,  for  each  to  discharge  their  cargoes  of  goods,  take 
in  furs,  and  leave  that  great  inland  sea  before  the  Arc- 
tic winter  closes  it  for  another  nine  months.  Waiting 
then  till  summer  returns,  the  goods  then  hurry  on  to 
Lake  Winnipeg,  and  down  to  the  Arctic  and  over  to  the 
Yukon  and  Pacific.  Carts  and  batteaux  make  the  te- 
dious trips  with  the  freight,  and  the  agent  follows  on 
the  first  hard  winter  snows,  with  dogs,  almost  as  a  tele- 
gram chases  up  an  express  bundle.  At  the  end  of  six 
years  the  bill  of  goods  from  London  is  responded  to  by 
bales  of  furs.  Over  that  dreary,  inland  line  of  two 
years  from  York  Factory,  the  outside  world  is  hauled 
in  by  dogs.  Right  and  left  from  the  sledge  trail,  as  on 
branch  roads,  the  life  and  stir  of  mankind  are  reported 
to  lonely  trading-posts  —  handfuls  of  hermits,  eremites, 
desert-men. 

At  the  extremity  of  one  of  these  antenna?  of  a  moving 
world,  the  chief  trader,  says  Robinson  in  his  "  Great  Fur 
Land,"  "  has  control  of  a  district  in  many  instances  as 
large  as  a  European  kingdom.  .  .  .  He  directs  the 


96      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

course  of  trade,  erects  new  establishments,  orders  the 
necessary  outfits  for  the  year,  suggests  needed  reforms 
to  the  council,  and  in  his  capacity  of  chief  magistrate  of 
his  principality,  rules  supreme."  What  a  life  those  head 
traders  must  have  —  frontier  pickets  of  an  uncivilized 
commerce  !  They  have  no  companionship,  and  little 
that  is  congenial  till  they  decivilize  themselves,  and 
then  have  no  neighbors  but  Indians  !  A  dog-train 
leaves  Fort  Garry,  and  for  one  hundred  and  twenty 
days  it  glides  over  the  silent  plains,  and  for  as  many 
nights  it  sleeps  under  those  northern  stars — but  little 
less  unchanging  than  the  business  that  runs  the  sledge. 
The  trip  ends  at  La  Pierre's,  on  Methy  Portage,  three 
thousand  miles  away !  How  those  solitary  outposts  of 
white  men  on  the  upper  Yukon  must  welcome'  the  dogs 
and  news  from  the  living,  stirring,  talking  world  of  one 
year  more ! 

The  home  mail  has  been  a  year  on  the  way  to  those 
most  northern  posts,  and  the  file  of  newspapers  for  the 
year  preceding  the  start  is  carefully  laid  away,  and  each 
number  brought  out  and  read  two  years  from  the  date 
of  its  printing !  Formerly  the  Montreal  "  Gazette  "  was 
the  only  paper  forwarded,  since  the  copy  of  a  second 
would  add  undue  weight  to  the  sledge.  When  the 
sledge  arrives  from  Pembina  at  old  Fort  Good  Hope, 
on  the  lower  Mackenzie,  the  dogs  have  hauled  it  as  far 
as  from  London  to  Quebec ;  and  when  their  howls 
break  the  stillness  of  twelve  months,  by  switching  off 
to  the  Rocky  Mountain  House,  they  have  run  about 
twice  the  distance  from  New  York  to  New  Orleans. 
How  those  Arctic  inland  St.  Helenas  of  voluntary  ex- 
iles welcome,  and  question,  and  feast,  and  enforce  hos- 
pitality on  the  incoming  man  !  The  joy  is  almost  as 


THE    GREAT  ENGLISH  MISTAKE.  y? 

if  Noah  should  speak  a  second  ark  on  the  wilderness  of 
waters. 

The  charter  commits  the  government  of  that  country 
to  the  Company  with  the  sole  condition  that  the  govern- 
ment shall  not  be  •'  repugnant  to  the  laws,  statutes,  and 
customs  of  England."  Robinson  gives  us  an  amusing  il- 
lustration of  one  process  of  government :  "  When  the 
Indians  proved  refractory  around  one  of  the  Company's 
trading-posts,  the  trader  in  charge  would  wind  up  his 
music-box,  get  his  magic  lantern  ready,  and  take  out  his 
galvanic  battery.  Placing  the  handle  of  the  latter  in- 
strument in  the  grasp  of  some  stalwart  chief,  he  would 
administer  a  terrific  shock  to  his  person  and  warn  him 
that  far  out  upon  the  plains  he  could  inflict  the  same 
medicine  upon  him."  This  process  of  administration  is 
not  supposed  to  be  "  repugnant"  to  any  act  of  Parlia- 
ment, or  to  any  of  the  "  customs  "  of  the  common  law 
of  Great  Britain.  But  it  shows  the  process  of  civili- 
zation in  that  large  portion  of  her  Majesty's  dominion. 
It  also  indicates  by  what  slips  and  mistakes  Oregon  was 
lost  to  the  Crown. 

One  species  of  amusement  for  the  middle  class  shows 
the  same  thing,  as  described  by  the  same  English  au- 
thor. It  is  a  half-breed  ball^when  dancing,  eating,  drink- 
ing, sleeping,  and  general  rough  carousal  run  through 
three  days  and  nights  without  intermission.  "  From 
time  to  time,  as  many  as  are  requisite  to  keep  up  the 
festivities  are  awakened,  and  being  forthwith  revived 
with  raw  spirits,  join  in  the  dance  with  renewed  vigor." 

The  hunting  and  trapping  are  done  in  the  cold  season, 
and  annually  at  the  close  of  March  or  in  early  April, 
when  an  occasional  hour  of  softening  air  and  snow  gives 
hint  of  coming  spring,  the  Indians  leave  their  winter 


98     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

trapping-grounds,  and  gather  about  the  posts  to  trade 
off  their  furs  and  obtain  their  scanty  returns.  This  in- 
vasion of  Indians  even  and  their  inroad  on  trading- 
house  life  are  welcomed  because  they  break  the  dull 
routine  and  solemn  sameness  of  simply  protracted  exis- 
tence. Through  the  narrow  and  angular  passage  to  the 
grated  store-room  window,  admitting  for  trade  but  two 
Indians  at  a  time,  the  miserable  aborigine  passes  in  his 
furs.  It  may  be  his  fine  silver  fox  skins,  worth  two 
hundred  dollars,  for  which  he  bargains  in  return  the  pair 
of  three  point  blankets  worth  fifteen  dollars.  Then 
"  the  high  contracting  parties,"  mutually  satisfied,  sepa- 
rate for  another  year. 

This  great  trade  of  the  Company,  in  all  its  details, 
has  carried  out  of  the  country  in  two  centuries,  by 
estimation,  one  hundred  and  twenty  millions  of  dollars 
in  fur,  reckoned  on  a  gold  basis.  Yet  they  have  so 
protected  the  wilderness  against  civilization,  and  propa- 
gated the  fur-bearing  animals,  and  apprenticed  the  In- 
dian generations  in  their  succession  to  trapping  and  hunt- 
ing, that  the  average  yearly  catch  has  not  diminished. 

This  is  a  suggestive  fact.  The  old  thirteen  colonies 
exterminated  wild  animals,  under  bounty,  that  they 
might  build  up  Albany  and  Bangor  and  Pittsburg, 
Hartford  and  Buffalo.  They  gave  men,  women  and 
children  preference  and  protection  on  the  wild  borders, 
over  bears  and  silver  foxes.  They  discarded  gins,  traps, 
and  deadfalls  where  Manchester  and  Nashua  and  Low- 
ell and  Paterson  are.  They  esteemed  an  ox  above  a 
buffalo  and  a  sheep  above  a  deer.  Yet  in  the  crucible 
of  this  Company  in  their  last  analysis  of  half  a  conti- 
nent for  highest  values,  population,  civilization,  agricul- 
ture, mining,  neighborhood  and  city  building  have  been 


THE  GREAT  ENGLISH  MISTAKE.  99 

thrown  off  as  slag  and  dross,  and  only  fur  remains. 
Six  generations  of  "  Adventurers  of  England  trading 
in  Hudson  Bay  "  and  as  many  generations  of  trappers 
Lave  been  on  the  grand  Nortli  American  hunt,  and  the 
average  yearly  catch  does  not  fall  off. 

In  1870  the  posts  of  this  Company  on  the  Saskatch- 
ewan alone  furnished  thirty  thousand  buffalo  robes,  In- 
dian-tanned. As  an  Indian  woman  can  dress  about  ten 
a  year,  polygamy  is  common  in  that  valley.  A  tract 
of  country  can  be  marked  off  through  this  valley,  from 
the  Red  River  to  the  Pacific,  as  good  for  wheat  as 
Michigan,  where  a  dozen  starving  Irelands  could  be 
located  without  crowding  each  other,  and  where  the 
people  could  work  their  own  land  with  comfort  and  eat 
their  own  wheat  to  repletion.  For  two  hundred  years 
Irish  immigrants  could  not  "visit,  haunt,  frequent, 
trade,  traffic,  or  adventure  "  in  that  splendid  domain  of 
Great  Britain.  They  would  disturb  the  beaver. 

It  is  due  to  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  that  Eng- 
land was  kept  so  long  in  ignorance  of  the  extent  and 
worth  to  her  subjects  of  that  magnificent  belt  westward 
from  the  Red  River  country.  With  natural  advantages 
vastly  superior  to  those  of  Canada  and  equal  to  those  of 
the  northwestern  states  of  the  United  States,  the  Com- 
pany held  the  region  in  dark  reserve,  and  the  home  gov- 
ernment was  robbed  of  a  colonial  growth,  while  she  lost 
her  own  emigrants  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands  when 
they  settled  in  the  United  States. 

The  great  English  mistake,  by  which  Oregon  was 
lost  to  Great  Britain,  is  shown  at  no  time  more  clearly 
than  in  the  incidents  and  policies  of  the  time  now  under 
review.  Let  two  pictures  be  here  taken  in  contrast 
and  for  illustration.  The  great  fall  hunt  for  buffalo 


100  OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

provided  the  almost  entire  living  of  many  tribes  for  the 
year,  and  much  of  the  income  to  the  Company  from  the 
region  west  of  Lake  Winnipeg.  Those  annual  hunts 
were  probably  the  most  magnificent  and  picturesque 
that  were  ever  followed  by  any  people,  if  we  take  into 
account  the  majestic  prairie  hunting -fields,  the  dig- 
nity and  multitude  of  the  game,  and  the  numbers  of 
men,  women,  and  children  who  made  up  the  camps. 
Robinson's  description  in  his  "  Great  Fur  Land  "  needs 
no  variation. 

The  rendezvous  is  usually  on  the  borders  of  some 
large  river.  "  From  two  thousand  to  twenty-five  hun- 
dred carts  line  the  banks ;  three  thousand  animals  graze 
within  sight  upon  the  prairie ;  a  thousand  men,  witli 
their  following  of  women  and  children,  find  shelter  un- 
der carts  and  in  the  tents  and  tepees  of  the  encamp- 
ment ;  the  smoke  of  the  camp  almost  obscures  the  sun  ; 
and  the  babel  of  sounds  arising  from  the  laughing, 
neighing,  barking  multitude,  resembles  the  rush  of  many 
waters." 

This  vast  throng  keep  Sabbath  forenoon  devoutly, 
with  priest  and  ceremonial,  and  the  afternoon  is  given  to 
racing,  gaming,  sports  and  plays.  In  due  time,  under 
trained  leaders,  and  with  the  science  and  strategy  of  a 
battle,  the  hunters  steal  on  the  vast  herd  of  lumbering 
buffalo  and  the  slaughter  begins.  The  earth  trembles 
in  the  rush  of  the  animals  and  their  pursuers,  dust  and 
smoke  cloud  the  air  for  miles,  the  roar  of  mingled 
sounds  is  heard  far  off  at  the  camp  of  women  and  carts, 
and  the  bloody  battle-field  with  struggling  and  dead 
buffalo  spreads  out  indefinitely  on  the  prairie  and 
through  the  ravines. 

After  such  a  hunt,  and  mainly  for  robes,  "  the  plain 


THE  GREAT  ENGLISH  MISTAKE.  101 

for  miles  is  covered  with  the  carcasses  of  buffalo,  from 
which  nothiiig  has  been  taken,  save  the  hides  and 
tongues,  and  it  may  be,  the  more  savory  portions  of  the 
hump." 

The  region  of  these  slaughterings  for  robes,  lying 
about  the  prairie  heads  of  the  Missouri,  over  to  the 
Saskatchawan,  and  up  its  valleys,  is  magnificent  wheat 
land,  and  was  monopolized  and  held  back  from  cabin 
and  plow  for  this  crop  of  buffalo. 

This  is  one  picture.  At  the  same  time  American  im- 
migrants, with  no  monopoly,  and  individually  carrying 
civilization  to  a  farther  point,  were  hurrying  the  rem- 
nants of  buffalo  herds  over  the  Mississippi,  and  planting 
Indiana  and  Illinois  and  Wisconsin  on  the  great  eastern 
pastures  of  that  animal.  Iowa  and  Minnesota  soon  fol- 
lowed, and  the  Northern  Pacific  railroad  now  heads  the 
march  of  civilization  and  empire  to  our  extreme  west. 
So  up  to  the  very  boundary  the  United  States  began 
to  raise  wheat  and  plant  cities,  while  over  the  line  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company  went  on  skinning  buffalo  for  the 
London  market,  thirty  thousand  a  year.  The  emigrant 
wagon,  cultivation,  mechanics,  a  various  trade,  and  gen- 
eral civilization  were  kept  on  the  American  side  of  the 
boundary.  The  two  policies  stand  out  in  the  two  pict- 
ures, and  the  two  forces  press  westward.  Which  will 
win  Oregon  ? 

When  this  fur  policy  came  into  competition  with  the 
colonial  policy  of  the  Republic,  the  great  English  mis- 
take became  apparent.  Trappers  and  Indian  traders 
could  outrun  immigrant  wagons.  Yet  eventually  the 
plow  would  overtake  them  and  finally  obtain  a  war- 
ranty deed  of  the  land.  If  the  English  government 
saw  the  mistake,  it  was  not  till  it  was  too  late.  The 


102    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

Company  could  hold  its  policy  and  monopoly  till  1870. 
At  this  date  the  territory  of  the  Company,  or  Rupert's 
Land,  merged  in  the  Crown.  The  monopoly  of  trade 
in  lands  outside,  commonly  called  Indian  Countries,  and 
granted  in  1821,  ended  in  1859. 

Perhaps  never  in  history  has  there  been  a  better  il- 
lustration of  the  danger  and  damage  to  the  public  of  a 
chartered  monopoly.  When  a  corporation  becomes  too 
powerful  for  the  government,  the  design  or  end  of  that 
government  is  a  failure.  In  this  case  a  private  interest 
was  enabled  to  shut  off  from  the  Crown  the  settlement 
and  commerce  and  profits  of  millions  of  square  miles. 
It  shut  off  the  kingdom  of  Great  Britain  from  efficient 
growth  in  North  America.  If  the  .possession  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company  had  reverted  to  the  Crown  at 
the  end  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  it  would  have  been 
returned,  as  received,  a  wilderness.  To  know,  in  com- 
parison, what  might  have  been,  one  needs  only  to  cross 
the  boundary  line  and  notice  the  northern  tier  of  states 
lying  just  south  of  that  line. 

The  great  English  mistake,  therefore,  was  double.  It 
was  a  mistake  in  attempting  to  take  and  hold  Oregon 
by  trapping,  as  against  colonizing :  and  it  was  a  mistake 
to  sacrifice  so  largely  the  English  interests  in  America 
to  a  corporate  monopoly. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

FOUR   FLAT-HEAD    INDIANS    IN    ST.    LOUIS. 

FOUR  Flat-Head  Indians  had  come  in  1832  from 
Oregon,  three  thousand  miles,  on  a  special  mission  of 
their  own  devising.  Indians  were  common  visitors,  al- 
most common  loungers  in  St.  Louis  at  that  time.  They 
glided  about  quite  frequently  and  freely  in  moccasin  and 
blanket  among  the  six  thousand  Americans,  French  Cre- 
oles, fur  men,  half-breeds,  boatmen,  and  border  adventur- 
ers of  that  frontier  town.  It  was  common  to  see  wigwams 
not  far  from  the  city,  and  almost  the  entire  region  above, 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  river,  was  Indian  ground,  though 
the  river  belt  was  shared  in  common  by  the  most  ven- 
turesome and  irrepressible  white  pioneers.  Even  as  late 
as  1840, 1  frequently  met  on  the  streets  the  stately,  si- 
lent, louting  red  man,  trailing  his  blanket  and  burdening 
his  squaw,  or  saw  him  crouching  over  his  scanty  fire  of 
kindlings  and  drift-wood,  in  the  then  still  noted  grounds 
of  the  American  Fur  Company.  For  weeks  together 
Indians  would  have  their  squalid  camps  about  Illinois 
Town,  and  in  the  bottoms  toward  the  Big  Mound  and 
down  to  the  romantic  Cohokia  Falls. 

The  four  poor  Flat-Heads,  therefore,  attracted  no 
special  attention.  Only  the  expert  in  Indian  signs  and 
wood-craft  could  have  marked  their  tribe  and  distant 
home,  specially  as  coming  over  the  plains  the  Sioux  had 
tricked  them  out  in  gaudy  and  generous  trappings  of 
that  tribe. 


104   OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

Far  up  Clark's  River,  and  central  in  what  is  now 
Washington  Territory,  beyond  mountain  fastnesses,  they 
had  heard  from  an  American  trapper  of  the  white  man's 
God,  and  of  a  spirit  home,  better  than  the  hunting- 
grounds  of  the  blessed,  and  of  a  Book  that  told  truly  of 
the  Great  Spirit,  and  of  that  home  and  the  trail  to  it. 
The  report  is  that  the  Iroquois  had  given  to  them  some 
of  the  Christian  teachings  which  had  become  theirs  in 
Colonial  New  York;  and  very  likely  some  of  the  mount- 
ain trappers  who  left  the  white  frontier  and  rude  clear- 
ing, and  may  be  the  Book  and  family  altar  long  years 
before,  had  done  the  same  thing.  The  Indians,  always 
religiously  inclined,  listened,  and  then  inquired,  and  then 
talked  it  over. 

It  does  not  require  much  fancy  to  follow  them  in 
their  rude  processes  of  investigation.  In  those  ancient 
groves  which  no  axe  had  mutilated,  God's  first  temples, 
or  where  solemn  and  sublime  mountains  shut  them  in 
like  grand  old  cathedrals,  we  see  them  sitting  about 
their  dusky  camp-fires.  They  think  much  and  say  but 
little  of  the  white  man's  God  and  Book  —  stealthy  wor- 
shippers —  feeling  after  the  true  God,  if  haply  they  may 
find  him. 

Then  they  turn  to  the  chase  again,  and  feed  on  the  red 
deer  and  big-horn  ;  and  renew  their  scanty  wardrobe 
from  the  wolf,  and  the  grizzly  and  silver-tipped  bear, 
and  pile  away  the  beaver  for  the  Hudson  Bay  man,  and 
a  new  flint-lock,  or  three  point  blanket.  The  Rocky 
Mountain  winter  threatens  them,  and  they  follow  the 
buffalo,  whose  instinct  has  led  him  north,  for  a  warm 
retreat  on  those  plains  and  among  the  vast  valleys  that 
the  Pacific  trade-winds  keep  perpetually  warm  and 
green.  With  the  return  of  spring  we  see  them  coming 


POUR  FLAT-HEAD  INDIANS  IN  ST.  LOUIS.    105 

back  to  the  old  camping-grounds  of  the  summer,  laden 
with  furry  spoils,  and  with  a  burden  of  thinking,  too, 
about  the  white  man's  God  and  Book.  They  stretch 
their  skinny  hands  over  the  light  blaze  and  talk  myste- 
riously, two  or  three  of  them,  here  and  there.  Now  they 
take  up  the  theme  more  freely  in  the  tepee,  and  at 
length  it  comes  into  the  high  council  of  opinions  and 
plans  and  action.  They  must  know  about  this  thing. 
Their  dim  hereafter  needs  lighting  up.  Perhaps  it  is 
the  God  and  the  Book  of  the  pale-faces  that  make  them 
great  in  their  big  canoes  on  the  great  waters  of  the 
setting  sun.  They  must  know  more.  It  was  gravely 
and  anxiously  settled  that  some  of  their  number  should 
go  on  the  long  trail  to  the  rising  of  the  sun  to  find  the 
Book  and  bring  back  the  light. 

Two  old  braves  were  selected,  one  of  them  a  sachem, 
for  their  wisdom  and  prudence,  and  well  proved  love  for 
the  tribe.  Two  young  braves  were  added,  for  strength, 
and  endurance,  and  daring,  in  any  perils  along  the  un- 
known path  of  many  moons.  In  the  silence  of  true 
heroism,  that  asks  no  trumpet  at  the  opening,  but  only 
the  crown  of  success  at  the  close,  the  four  passed  off 
into  the  forest,  and  over  the  rivers,  and  out  on  the 
prairies.  This  was  an  improvement  on  the  Macedonian 
call.  They  went  themselves  to  get  what  they  wanted. 

What  route  did  they  take  ?  Down  Clark  to  Lewis 
River,  and  then  up  to  Fort  Hall,  and  so  on  to  the  Mis- 
souri ?  Or,  avoiding  the  terrible  Black-Feet  of  the 
Upper  Plains,  did  they  go  down  the  Great  Basin  of 
Salt  Lake,  and  strike  the  Santa  Fe  trail  by  the  Gunni- 
son  region,  and  so  to  Bent's  Fort  on  the  Arkansas  ? 
No  record  of  the  route  of  the  four  Flat-Heads  has 
found  a  place  in  literature. 


106      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

We  think  of  the  hostile  tribes  through  whose  territory 
they  went  those  thousand  miles,  traveling  by  night  and 
resting  by  day  ;  we  note  the  many  interviews  they  had 
with  doubtful  bands,  and  the  counsel  and  courses  they 
took  from  those  whom  they  could  trust.  What  little 
fires  they  kindled  in  secluded  glens,  sleeping  afterward, 
while  one  kept  watch  as  silently  as  the  stars  watched 
the  four !  Now  they  feasted  on  venison,  or  mountain 
sheep,  or  antelope;  and  now,  too  prudent  to  hunt,  it 
was  beaver  or  muskrat,  no  unsavory  dish  at  a  camp-fire, 
when  one  has  for  sauce  a  backwoods  appetite. 

If  they  were  captives,  and  afterward  escaped  prison- 
ers, no  record  tells  of  it.  Perhaps,  with  a  mystic  con- 
fidence in  the  white  man's  God  whom  they  were  seeking, 
they  avoided  perils  by  daring  them.  They  covered  thek 
track  to  foes,  told  their  purpose  to  friends,  made  a  light 
burden  of  their  hardships,  and  kept  their  fears  behind 
them,  like  true  pilgrims  of  the  Bunyan  kind. 

By  whatever  route  of  travel  they  journeyed,  many 
moons  came  and  went,  we  know  not  how  many,  till  they 
arrived  at  St.  Louis,  the  great  tepee  of  white  men.  They 
wondered  over  the  big  lodges  of  wood,  and  brick,  and 
stone;  they  marveled  silently  at  the  great  fire-canoes, 
that  went  up  and  down  the  river  without  paddles  ;  and 
the  abundance  of  fine  things  on  the  streets  and  in  the 
stores  confused  them.  With  very  few  words,  and  a  step 
that  no  one  heard,  they  glided  up  and  down  and  in  and 
out  among  streets  and  stores,  and  studied  the  whole. 
But  in  this  world  of  new  sights,  and  in  a  tumult  of 
thoughts,  their  sacred  errand  was  uppermost,  and  they 
must  deliver  it  to  one  man. 

Twenty-seven  years  before  General  William  Clark 
had  been  over  the  mountains,  and  left  his  name  on  their 


FOUR  FLAT-HEAD  INDIANS  IN  ST.  LOUIS.    107 

river,  and  their  old  men  had  seen  him  or  known  of  him. 
Born  in  Virginia,  and  emigrating  at  a  tender  age  to 
Kentucky,  he  had  much  to  do  with  Indians  on  "  the 
dark  and  bloody  ground,"  and  just  at  the  close  of  the 
century,  while  St.  Louis  was  in  Spanish  dominions,  he 
took  up  his  abode  in  that  city.  He  was  associated  with 
Captain  Meriwether  Lewis  in  the  overland  expedition 
to  Oregon,  and  then  became  known,  by  reputation,  to 
the  Flat-Heads  ;  the  success  of  that  daring  survey  was 
due  much  to  his  consummate  knowledge  of  Indian 
character.  After  his  return  he  was  made  brigadier-gen- 
eral of  the  Upper  Louisiana,  and  was  active  and  efficient 
in  the  Indian  wars  that  harassed  the  western  borders 
through  the  early  years  of  the  present  century.  He  was 
territorial  governor  of  Missouri  till  it  became  a  state  in 
1821,  from  which  time  to  his  death,  in  1838,  he  was 
Indian  Superintendent  with  headquarters  at  St.  Louis. 

An  incident  will  introduce  the  man  and  his  times  to 
us,  and  show  what  the  early  settlers  in  Ohio,  Indiana, 
and  Illinois  had  to  encounter  in  laying  the  foundations 
of  those  three  noble  states.  General  Clark  found  him- 
self, on  one  occasion,  with  few  men  and  scanty  supplies, 
in  a  post  surrounded  by  warlike  and  haughty  savages. 
They  apparently  knew  his  reduced  'condition  and  were 
disposed  to  cut  him  and  his  men  off  by  a  treacherous 
massacre.  A  council  was  called  with  the  Indians  in  the 
fort,  and,  contrary  to  all  usage  and  good  intention,  they 
came  in  fully  armed,  not  only  the  leading  ones,  but  the 
young  and  fiery  braves.  The  General  was  in  no  condi- 
tion to  resent  it.  At  the  long  council-table  the  inso- 
lent chief  occupied  the  end  opposite  to  Clark,  and  the 
whole  air  and  manner  of  the  savages  made  him  and 
his  few  white  men  feel  that  they  were  doomed.  The 


108   OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

chief  was  silent  and  sullen,  and  at  length  drew  from 
under  his  blanket  a  rattlesnake's  skin  stuffed  with  pow- 
der and  ball,  and  threw  it  toward  the  General.  It  was 
a  declaration  of  war,  and  every  white  man  felt  that  he 
might  any  moment  hear  the  war-whoop  and  see  the 
brandished  tomahawks.  The  Indians  appeared  to  be 
only  waiting  for  a  signal  from  their  chief  to  commence 
a  butchery.  General  Clark  had  in  his  hand  a  kind  of 
riding-stick  with  which  he  turned  the  snake's  skin  over 
and  over,  drawing  it  nearer  to  him.  All  was  still  as 
death,  while  they  knew  that  their  lives  hung  on  daring. 
By  and  by  he  succeeded  in  coiling  it  around  his  whip- 
stick,  when  with  a  sudden  motion  he  flirted  it  back 
to  the  haughty  chief,  and  said  with  dignity  and  bold- 
ness :  "  If  the  Indians  want  war,  they  can  have  war." 

The  confidence  and  prompt  acceptance  of  the  chal- 
lenge led  the  Indians  to  think  that  recruits  were  at  hand 
to  relieve  their  beleaguered  victims,  and  they  quietly 
withdrew  from  the  council  and  from  the  fort.  This  in- 
cident was  related  to  me  three  years  after  the  General's 
death  by  the  gentleman  to  whom  he  told  it,  and  I  think 
has  never  before  been  in  print. 

This  was  the  man  to  whom  the  four  Flat-Heads  must 
open  their  business,  as  the  great  chief  of  the  Missouris. 
Very  likely  the  General  thought  they  had  come  to  talk 
of  a  war,  or  a  treaty,  or  of  lands,  or  of  beaver.  Their 
religious  purpose  did  not  much  interest  him.  for  they 
were  only  Indians,  and  beyond  their  furs  and  lands  and 
wars  they  had  never  had  much  to  win  the  attention  of 
white  men. 

How  long  they  were  in  St.  Louis  does  not  appear, 
only  that  they  were  there  long  enough  for  the  two  old 
men  to  die,  and  for  one  of  the  younger  to  contract  dis- 


FOUR  FLAT-HEAD  INDIANS  IN  ST.   LOUIS.    109 

eases  of  which  he  died,  on  his  return,  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Yellowstone.  They  made  known  distinctly  the  fact 
that  they  had  come  their  long  journey  to  get  the  white 
man's  Book,  which  would  tell  them  of  the  white  man's 
God  and  heaven. 

In  what  was  then  a  Roman  Catholic  city  it  was  not 
easy  to  do  this,  and  officers  only  were  met.  It  has 
not  been  the  policy  or  practice  of  that  church  to  give 
the  Bible  to  the  people,  whether  Christian  or  pagan. 
They  have  not  thought  it  wise  or  right.  Probably  no 
Christian  enterprises  in  all  the  centuries  have  shown  more 
self-sacrifice,  heroism,  foreseen  suffering,  and  intense  re- 
ligious devotion  than  the  laborers  of  that  church,  from 
1520,  to  give  its  type  of  Christianity  to  the  natives  of 
North  America.  But  it  was  oral,  ceremonial,  and  pic- 
torial. In  the  best  of  their  judgment,  and  in  the  depths 
of  their  convictions,  they  did  not  think  it  best  to  reduce 
native  tongues  to  written  languages,  and  the  Scriptures 
to  the  vernacular  of  any  tribe.  Survey  three  centuries, 
from  the  first  Indian  missions  in  Florida  to  the  Gulf  of 
St.  Lawrence,  around  the  Hudson  Bay  basin,  and  to  the 
Pacific,  and  on  either  side  of  the  wild  mountain  ranges, 
from  the  Arctic  to  Panama,  it  is  doubtful  whether  the 
Romanists  ever  put  into  an  Indian  tongue,  and  through  a 
tribe,  an  amount  of  Scripture  equal  to  the  shortest  gospel. 

We,  of  another  branch  of  the  church,  honor  the  devo- 
tion, daring,  and  sacrifice,  the  expenditure  of  treasure 
and  human  life  which  they  have  lavished  in  their  con- 
tinental fields.  We  as  deeply  mourn  the  mistake  that 
did  not  imbed  Christianity  in  the  language,  and  a  young 
literature,  for  the  poor  Indians. 

In  that  old  Indian  and  papal  city  the  poor  Flat- Heads 
could  not  find  "  the  Book."  They  were  fed  to  feasting, 


110      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

they  were  provided  with  wigwam  ground,  they  were 
blanketed  and  ornamented.  They  were  armed  and  en- 
tertained cordially  and  abundantly.  St.  Louis  must  al- 
ways have  the  palm  for  that  kindness  to  the  red  men. 
Its  traditions,  earliest  history,  trade,  growth,  and  some 
of  its  blood,  run  that  way.  But  the  heart  that  had  come 
three  thousand  miles  of  toil  and  peril,  to  be  filled  with 
better  ideas  of  God  and  of  the  long  trail  into  the  here- 
after, could  not  be  satisfied  with  all  this. 

Their  mission  was  a  failure.  Sad  it  is  that  it  has  so 
commonly  proved  thus  for  the  Indians  where  they  have 
sought  the  highest  good  from  the  whites,  while  we  have 
pressed  the  gospel  successfully  on  pagan  and  even  can- 
nibal foreigners.  They  therefore  prepared  to  go  back  to 
their  dark  mountain  home,  and  bear  to  their  tribe  the 
burden  of  disappointment.  Of  course  there  must  be  a 
ceremonial  leave-taking,  and  the  council  lodge  was  the 
house  of  the  American  Fur  Company. 

General  Clark  was  then  the  great  sachem  of  the  whites, 
a  true  and  generous  friend  of  the  Indians.  He  received 
the  farewell  address  of  the  two  surviving  Flat- Heads. 
It  requires  no  fancy  of  mine,  but  only  memory,  to  sketch 
that  audience  room  of  furs  and  robes  and  the  few  hear- 
ers. As  to  the  speech,  it  is  apparently  as  hard  for  the 
American  language  as  for  the  American  people  to  do  an 
Indian  justice:  — 

"  I  came  to  you  over  a  trail  of  many  moons  from  the 
setting  sun.  You  were  the  friend  of  my  fathers  who 
have  all  gone  the  long  way.  I  came  with  one  eye  part- 
ly opened,  for  more  light  for  my  people,  who  sit  in  dark- 
ness. I  go  back  with  both  eyes  closed.  How  can  I  go 
back  blind,  to  my  blind  people  ?  I  made  my  way  to  you 
with  strong  arms,  through  many  enemies  and  strange 


FOUR  FLAT-HEAD  INDIANS  IN  ST.  LOUIS.    Ill 

lands,  that  I  might  carry  back  much  to  them.  I  go  back 
with  both  arms  broken  and  empty.  The  two  fathers 
who  came  with  us  —  the  braves  of  many  winters  and 
wars  —  we  leave  asleep  here  by  your  great  water  and 
wigwam.  They  were  tired  in  many  moons,  and  their 
moccasins  wore  out.  My  people  sent  me  to  get  the 
white  man's  Book  of  Heaven.  You  took  me  where  you 
allow  your  women  to  dance,  as  we  do  not  ours,  and 
the  Book  was  not  there.  You  took  me  where  they  wor- 
ship the  Great  Spirit  with  candles,  and  the  Book  was 
not  there.  You  showed  me  the  images  of  good  spirits 
and  pictures  of  the  good  land  beyond,  but  the  Book  was 
not  among  them  to  tell  us  the  way.  I  am  going  back 
the  long,  sad  trail  to  my  people  of  the  dark  land.  You 
make  my  feet  heavy  with  burdens  of  gifts,  and  my  moc- 
casins will  grow  old  in  carrying  them,  but  the  Book  is 
not  among  them.  When  I  tell  my  poor,  blind  people, 
after  one  more  snow,  in  the  bi*  council,  that  I  did  not 
bring  the  Book,  no  word  will  be  spoken  by  our  old  men 
or  by  our  young  braves.  One  by  one  they  will  rise  up 
and  go  out  in  silence.  Mj-  people  will  die  in  darkness, 
and  they  will  go  on  the  long  path  to  the  other  hunting- 
grounds.  No  white  man  will  go  with  them  and  no  white 
man's  Book,  to  make  the  way  plain.  I  have  no  more 
words." 

The  grounds  and  rooms  and  furs  of  that  scene  are  all 
fresh  in  my  memory,  and  it  does  not  require  much  of  a 
fancy  to  see  the  group  and  hear  the  speeches  and  wit- 
ness the  sad  and  silent  departure  of  the  two  remaining 
Flat-Head  Indians.  A  steamer  of  the  American  Fur 
Company  was  just  starting  for  the  upper  Missouri. 
This  was  the  first  "  fire-canoe  "  that  ever  made  the  long 
trip  of  twenty-two  hundred  miles,  past  the  Mandau  and 


112     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

other  tribes  and  villages,  to  the  Company's  post  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Yellowstone.  The  two  Indians  took  that 
steamer,  and  with  them  there  went,  also,  George  Catlin 
—  the  Indian  historian,  biographer,  and  painter,  who  in 
due  time  returned  and  went  up  to  Pittsburg. 

As  we  follow  this  incident  history  becomes  romance. 
That  speech,  more  impressive  and  sad  than  Logan's,  be- 
cause it  takes  hold  of  the  world  to  come  in  its  mournful 
refrain  —  "the  Book  was  not  there"  —  had  a  sympa- 
thetic hearer.  A  young  clerk  in  the  office  witnessed 
the  interview  and  noted  its  painful  end.  With  some 
Christian  sympathy  for  those  benighted  children  of  the 
mountains,  he  detailed  an  account  of  the  affair  to  his 
friends  at  Pittsburg.  When  Catlin  returned  there  they 
showed  the  letter  to  him,  and  proposed  to  publish  it  to 
the  world  in  order  to  secure  some  missionary  action  in 
behalf  of  the  Flat-Head  tribe.  Catlin  replied  that  there 
must  be  a  mistake  as  to  %  the  object  of  that  Indian  visit 
to  St.  Louis,  and  its  failure,  for  the  two  Flat-Heads  went 
up  to  the  Yellowstone  with  him,  and  they  said  nothing  of 
all  this  on  the  boat,  so  far  as  he  heard.  Let  the  publi- 
cation of  the  letter  be  delayed  till  he  could  write  to  Gen- 
eral Clark,  and  know  the  facts  in  the  case.  The  reply 
from  the  General  came  at  length  :  "  It  is  true ;  that  was 
the  only  object  of  their  visit  and  it  failed."  Then  Cat- 
lin said  :  "  Give  the  letter  to  the  world." 

In  his  "  Indian  Letters,  Number  Forty-Eight,"  Catlin 
thus  speaks  of  this  matter :  "  When  I  first  heard  the  re- 
port of  this  extraordinary  mission  across  the  mountains, 
I  could  scarcely  believe  it ;  but  on  consulting  with  Gen- 
eral Clark  I  was  fully  convinced  of  the  fact.  .  .  .  They 
had  been  told  that  our  religion  was  better  than  theirs, 
and  that  they  would  all  be  lost  if  they  did  not  embrace 


FOUR  FLAT-HEAD  INDIANS  IN  ST.  LOUIS.     113 

it."  And  afterward,  in  1836,  when  the  Rev.  H.  H. 
Spalding  and  wife  were  on  their  way  to  Oregon  as  mis- 
sionaries, they  met  Mr.  Catlin  in  Pittsburg,  who  detailed 
to  them  these  incidents  and  many  others.  Especially 
he  assured  them  that  white  women  could  not  be  carried 
over  the  mountains  :  "  The  hostile  Indians,  that  hover 
about  the  convoy,  would  fight  against  any  odds,  to  cap- 
ture them." 

It  may  here  be  added  that  Catlin  enriched  his  Indian 
Gallery  with  the  portraits  of  these  two  Indians.  They 
are  numbers  two  hundred  and  seven  and  two  hundred 
and  eight,  in  his  collection.  In  form,  features,  and  ex- 
pression they  are  more  attractive  than  most  Indian  por- 
traits. They  were  of  the  Nez  Perces  branch  of  the  Flat- 
Head  tribe,  but  do  not  show  the  flattened  head,  because 
this  band  had  abstained  from  that  barbarous  usage. 
They  stand  forth,  in  the  pictures,  in  the  rich  robes  and 
trappings  which  the  friendly  Sioux  had  bestowed,  and 
they  show,  too,  as  originators  in  a  custom  of  modern 
civilization,  since  their  hair  is  so  far  "  banged "  as  to 
cover  one  third  of  the  forehead. 

But  though  only  one  lived  to  return  and  he  carried 
back  a  disappointment,  the  mission  of  the  Four  Flat- 
Head  Indians  to  St.  Louis  was  not  a  failure.  That  peo- 
ple, it  is  true,  sat  in  the  gray  dawn  of  a  possible  day. 
But  night  shut  in  again  for  a  time.  The  little  captive 
Jewess  overheard  the  sad  story  of  her  leprous  master  Naa- 
man,  and  the  outcome  was  his  healing.  What  that  clerk 
overheard  between  blanketed  Indians  and  General  Clark 
was  a  divine  pivot.  The  poor  Indians  did  not  see  it, 
nor  the  fur-trading  white  man,  yet  on  it  much  Indian 
destiny  and  all  of  Oregon's  turned.  The  result  was  one 
of  the  most  romantic  chapters  in  American  History. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

"A    QUART    OF    SEED    WHEAT." 

THE  Americana  struck  Oregon  just  where  the  English 
failed,  in  the  line  of  settlements  and  civilization.  One 
carried  in  the  single  man  and  the  other  the  family; 
one,  his  traps  and  snares,  the  other,  his  seed  wheat,  oats 
and  potatoes ;  one  counted  his  muskrat  nests,  and  the 
other  his  hills  of  corn  ;  one  shot  an  Indian  for  killing  a 
wild  animal  out  of  season,  and  the  other  paid  bounty  on 
the  wolf  and  bear ;  one  took  his  newspaper  from  the  dog- 
mail,  twenty-four  or  thirty-six  months  from  date,  and  the 
other  carried  in  the  printing-press ;  one  hunted  and  traded 
for  what  he  could  carry  out  of  the  country,  the  other 
planted  and  builded  for  what  he  could  leave  in  it  for  his 
children.  In  short,  the  English  trader  ran  his  birch  and 
batteaux  up  the  streams  and  around  the  lakes  to  bring 
out  furs  and  peltries,  while  the  American  immigrant 
hauled  in,  with  his  rude  wagon,  the  nineteenth  century, 
and  came  back  loaded  with  Oregon  for  the  American 
Union. 

It  was  the  old  European  story  over  again.  Spain, 
France,  and  Great  Britain  did  not  make  plantations  in 
America  for  the  sake  of  America  or  for  the  colonists, 
but  for  chartered  monopolies  and  the  home  governments. 
The  colonists  were  as  laborers  on  wages,  or  as  hired 
agents  who  must  make  regular  returns.  So  the  sic  vos 
-non  vobis  of  Virgil  was  the  English  Bucolic  and  Georgia 


"A    QUART  OF  SEED    WHEAT."  115 

of  North  America.  By  such  a  policy  Great  Britain  lost 
her  thirteen  colonies,  and  afterward  Oregon.  Since  the 
United  States  became  a  nation  we  have  added,  from 
what  was  under  the  Spanish  flag,  what  would  make 
Spain  of  to-day  five  times,  and  from  French  dominion 
what  would  equal  France  four  and  a  half  times.  For 
the  loss  of  so  much  realm  in  the  New  World  they  are 
indebted  to  their  feudal  system  and  chartered  monopo- 
lies. The  development  of  their  possessions  in  this  coun- 
try was  made  an  impossibility. 

The  Franco-Spanish  Louisiana  and  the  northern  sec- 
tions of  New  Spain  felt  the  tendency  imparted  by  the 
United  States,  and  when  the  home  governments  held 
them  back,  as  feudal  retainers,  they  naturally  gravitated 
toward  the  young  Republic.  In  pursuit  of  the  same 
policy  England  failed  to  take  Oregon,  since  nothing 
runs  the  boundaries  of  sovereignty  in  a  wild  country 
like  wagon  wheels.  The  plough  and  fireside,  hoe  and 
bridge  are  more  powerful  than  a  corps  of  civil  engineers 
in  determining  metes  and  bounds. 

In  watching  the  international  battle,  therefore,  in 
which  the  prize  is  that  magnificent  Pacific  section,  we 
begin  to  see  families  and  agriculture  and  a  mixed  trade 
taking  the  field,  with  here  and  there  a  schoolhouse  and 
a  church  as  permanent  fortifications.  It  was  in  eastern 
blood  from  time  primeval  thus  to  push  into  new  lands 
and  keep  at  the  front  of  a  progressive  race  with  the 
leading  and  crowning  qualities  of  a  family  home. 

Few  men  did  more  to  shape  New  England  than  John 
Winthrop,  the  first  governor  of  Massachusetts.  While 
yet  in  England,  and  wishing  to  leave  his  country  home 
for  a  residence  in  or  near  London,  he  wrote  to  his  son, 
1627,  to  find  a  house  for  him,  saying  :  "  I  would  be 


116     OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

neere  churche  and  some  good  schoole."  After  he  ar- 
rived in  America,  in  1630,  and  till  his  death  in  1649,  he 
aimed  thus  to  locate  all  New  England  families.  His 
policy  and  life  went  to  make  the  colonial  law  of  Massa- 
chusetts in  1635:  "It is  agreed  that  hereafter  noe  dwel- 
ling howse  shalbe  builte  above  halfe  a  myle  from  the 
meeting-howse  in  any  new  plantacion,  without  leaue 
from  the  Court."  The  next  year  this  law  was  extended 
to  all  the  towns  in  the  colony. 

After  serving  in  the  old  French  war  Rufus  Putnam 
retired  to  his  farm  in  New  Braintree,  in  his  native  state, 
Massachusetts.  After  he  had  honorably  aided  his  coun- 
try through  the  perils  of  the  Revolution,  and  had  heard 
the  suggestions  of  Washington,  that  the  headlands  of 
the  Ohio  must  be  guarded  against  the  English,  the  Span- 
ish, and  the  French,  he  proposed  a  colony  for  that  re- 
mote region.  The  plan  reserved  thirty  thousand  and 
forty  acres  in  each  township  for  school  and  church  in- 
terests. This  Ohio  Company  early  voted  "  that  the  Di- 
rectors be  requested  to  pay  as  early  attention  as  possible 
to  the  education  of  youth,  and  the  promotion  of  public 
worship  among  the  first  settlers."  In  his  three  months' 
trip  out,  the  ox-cart  and  sled  of  Putnam  carried  that 
resolution,  and  other  eastern  notions,  over  the  Allegha- 
nies,  and  founded  Marietta  in  1788.  The  forces  that  have 
done  so  much  to  develop  the  magnificent  delta  between 
the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  were  in  that  cart.  By  and 
by,  in  our  narrative,  we  shall  come  up  with  that  cart 
again,  beyond  the  Missouri,  and  on  the  headlands  of  the 
Columbia  —  another  driver,  but  the  same  load.  It  will 
lead  in  the  grand  army  of  occupation,  and  the  steel-trap 
brigades  will  retire. 

The  visit  of  the  four  Nez  Perces  to  St.  Louis  was  a 


"A    QUART  OF  SEED    WHEAT."  117 

sharp  criticism  on  the  methods  of  the  Romanists  in 
planting  Christianity  in  North  America,  and  on  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company  in  restraining  civilization.  Their 
failure  to  obtain  "  the  Book  "  touched  the  heart  of  the 
land.  The  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  For- 
eign Missions,  and  the  Methodist  Board  of  Missions,  at 
once  took  measures  to  send  forward  explorers  and  pre- 
pare the  way  for  Christian  missions  in  Oregon.  The 
latter  sent  forward  the  Revs.  Jason  and  Daniel  Lee, 
and  others.  The  Revs.  Samuel  Parker,  and  Marcus 
Whitman,  M.  D.,  under  the  appointment  of  the  Amer- 
ican Board,  were  to  have  gone  at  the  same  time,  but  be- 
ing too  late  for  the  convoy  of  the  American  Fur  Com- 
pany, they  went  the  next  year.  This  was  not  only  the 
introduction  of  Protestant  missions  into  Oregon,  but  of 
civilization  among  the  natives.  Morning  in  the  north- 
west dates  from  that  time.  The  policy  of  utilizing  the 
northern  half  of  this  continent  for  fur  and  peltry,  after 
prevailing  with  marvelous  exclusiveness,  energy  and  se- 
verity for  a  century  and  a  half,  was  finally  broken. 

In  the  seventeenth  century  two  parallel  columns  of 
the  English  race  began  to  move  across  the  continent 
from  east  to  west ;  one  to  perpetuate  wilderness  and  prop- 
agate fur ;  the  other  to  conquer  the  wilderness  by  civ- 
ilization, and  displace  wild  animals  by  human  families. 
At  our  present  time  in  this  current  record  of  events  the 
invading  force  on  the  one  side  is  about  two  thousand,  and 
on  the  other  twelve  millions.  The  one  was  a  close  cor- 
poration, strong  in  the  bands  of  a  feudal  monopoly  ;  the 
other  was  one  of  those  tidal  waves  of  population,  that, 
from  time  to  time  in  the  ages,  have  swept  into  a  new 
country  and  made  a  nation.  The  one  held  territory  — 
Rupert's  Land  —  one  half  as  large  as  all  Europe,  under 


118      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

warranty  deed  by  Great  Britain  and  in  as  absolute  a  fee 
simple  as  any  one  holds  land  in  London  or  Boston ;  or, 
as  Martin  states  it  in  bis  "  Hudson  Bay  Territories,"  '•  as 
truly  a  rightful  property,  as  is  the  land  or  houses  of  an 
Englishman's  private  estate."  The  charter  of  that  Com- 
pany had  the  same  power,  and  made  the  same  convey- 
ance as  the  Massachusetts,  or  Connecticut,  or  Virginia 
charter.  Moreover,  the  Company  held  on  lease  from 
the  crown  as  much  more  territory  between  Rupert's 
Land  and  the  Arctic  and  Pacific,  for  exclusive  trade,  oc- 
cupation, and  government. 

The  other  advancing  force,  invading  the  wilderness, 
held  a  similar  extent  of  territory  and  by  similar  charters, 
originally  ;  and  afterward  in  severally  in  individual  farms 
and  town  lots.  The  latter  owners  finally  became  the 
United  States.  As  these  two  parallel  columns  approached 
Oregon,  the  question  of  prior  and  absolute  right  to 
go  in  and  possess  was  inevitably  raised.  This  question 
or  issue  was  the  right  of  the  human  race  to  occupation 
and  ownership  in  a  vacant  country  as  against  three  thou- 
sand trappers  and  traders,  for  the  increase  of  stock  divi- 
dends. 

Like  the  emigrant  companies  of  earlier  times  that 
entered  the  "  Holland  Purchase,"  and  "  the  Ohio,"  and 
the  "  Dark  and  Bloody  Ground,"  those  bands  for  Ore- 
gon went  in  with  the  purpose  of  carrying  civilization 
and  Christianity  westward  jointly.  When  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Spalding  left  Liberty,  on  the  Missouri,  for  his  long 
prairie  and  mountain  trail,  he  took,  with  "  the  Book," 
"a  quart  of  seed  wheat."  Our  type  of  Christianity 
means  farms  and  flour-mills,  and  factories  and  bridges, 
as  Veil  as  school-houses  and  churches,  and  catechisms. 
We  do  not  forget  what  hard,  bloody,  animal  pagans  our 


"A    QUART  OF  SEED    WHEAT."  119 

Celtic  and  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors  were,  when  Chris- 
tianity planted  "  a  quart  of  seed  wheat "  in  the  British 
Islands,  and  Alfred  gave  them  letters,  and  Bede  por- 
tions of  the  Bible.  Then  began  the  English-speaking 
Christianity  of  to-day. 

This  compound  of  settlements  a*hd  missions  was  a 
novelty  in  the  realm  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  as  it 
was  a  surprise,  and  annoyance,  and  anxiety.  Prior  to 
this  date,  1836,  they  had  introduced  some  Christian  min- 
istrations, but  only  to  a  very  limited  extent.  After 
American  settlers  and  missionaries  went  in,  the  Com- 
pany saw  the  need  of  doing  something  in  the  same  line 
to  hold  the  country.  Years  before,  traders  from  the 
States  had  urged  their  way  westward  to  the  Salt  Lake 
Basin,  and  Wyeth  had  founded  Fort  Hall  on  Snake  or 
Lewis'  River,  and,  indeed,  so  much  trade  had  arisen  in 
the  mountains,  that  the  American  Rendezvous  had  be- 
come an  annual  trading-fair,  on  Green  River,  for  parties 
both  sides  of  the  mountains.  Small  emigrant  compa- 
nies were  making  their  way  through,  some  to  Northern 
California,  and  some  to  Oregon.  It  has  always  been  the 
happy  fortune  of  the  United  States  to  have  a  border 
population  that  was  constantly  uneasy  to  reach  a  farther 
front,  wilder  land,  and  harder  life. 

From  the  days  of  the  Four  Flat-Heads  in  St.  Louis 
this  class  of  population  had  been  going  west  in  small 
bodies  from  the  Missouri,  and  through  the  mountains, 
prophetic  of  the  future  of  Oregon,  as  first  birds  and 
flowers  herald  the  spring.  Many  of  their  little  com- 
panies had  been  turned  back  or  scattered  in  the  moun- 
tains or  diverted  to  California  by  the  men  of  the  Hudson 
Bay  Company,  who  presented  all  imaginable  dangers, 
and  discouragements,  and  impossibilities,  to  prevent 


120     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

them  from  opening  to  the  States  the  knowledge  of  any 
pass  or  trail  to  Oregon. 

Several  of  these  companies  had  been  thus  turned  back 
before  Messrs.  Whitman  and  Spalding  appeared  at  Fort 
Hall  with  their  wives,  en  route  for  Oregon.  Seven  emi- 
grant trains  that  hati  reached  that  country  were  shrewdly 
enforced  to  leave  it.  Eleven  fur  companies  had  sought 
the  trade  of  that  country,  but  only  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  survived.  It  had  kept  back  and  crowded  out 
all  others.  Now  the  Methodist  missionaries  of  the  pre- 
ceding year  were  followed  by  this  company  ;  and  that 
"  quart  of  seed  wheat,"  suggestive  of  a  plough,  and 
wife,  and  family,  prophesied  a  Christian  civilization  for 
Oregon. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

A    BRIDAL    TOUR    OF    THIRTY-FIVE    HUNDRED    MILES. 

THE  exploring  delegates  of  the  American  Board  of 
Missions  had  designed  to  go  over  the  mountains  with 
the  Lees  in  1834,  but  they  were  detained  till  the  next 
year.  With  the  usual  experience  of  dangers  and  rough 
incidents,  common  to  the  Indian  country,  these  two  men, 
Messrs.  Whitman  and  Parker,  arrived  at  the  American 
Rendezvous  on  Green  River,  in  the  summer  of  1835. 
Here  they  met  the  mountain  men,  and  obtained  inte- 
rior views  of  the  opening  fields  of  the  great  and  almost 
unknown  northwest. 

This  meeting  was  of  great  importance  to  them,  as 
they  could  here  obtain  much  information  from  old 
traders  and  trappers  concerning  frontier  and  wild  life. 
Here,  too,  they  would  have  a  broad  introduction  to  the 
Indians,  and  could  begin  to  study  their  proposed  fields 
and  people.  Among  these,  singularly  and  happily,  they 
met  the  Nez  Perce  Flat  -  Heads,  whose  Macedonian 
agents  we  have  already  met  on  the  streets  of  St.  Louis. 

The  two  delegates,  like  the  spies  of  Israel  sent  up 
from  Kadesh,  must  have  been  burdened  with  the  anxie- 
ties of  their  business.  But  being  shrewd  men,*  and 
practical,  they  soon  comprehended  the  situation,  and 
laid  their  plans.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Parker  joined  himself 
to  the  Nez  Perces,  and  under  their  leading  and  protec- 
tion, threaded  his  way  to  Walla  Walla  and  Vancouver. 


122      OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

Studying  his.  field  for  an  instructive  report  to  the  Board 
which  sent  him,  and  enlarging  his  commission  somewhat 
in  the  line  of  his  tastes  into  scientific  explorations,  he 
remained  in  the  valley  of  the  Columbia  till  June,  1836, 
and  then  returned  to  the  States  by  way  of  the  Sandwich 
Islands. 

The  practical  eye  and  straight  sense  of  Dr.  Whitman 
grasped  at  once  his  great  life-work,  and  he  returned  that 
autumn  to  the  States  to  report  the  field,  procure  his 
outfit,  and  go  back  to  his  labors.  And  as  the  delegates 
of  Israel  carried  back  the  clusters  of  Eshcol,  as  evi- 
dences of  the  worth  of  the  land  they  had  explored,  so 
Dr.  Whitman  took  back  with  him  two  Nez  Perce  boys, 
as  specimens  of  the  people  whom  he  would  win  to  a 
Christian  civilization. 

Now  there  opens  a  chapter  in  American  history,  that 
for  heroes  and  heroines,  boldness  of  enterprise,  plots, 
moral  and  physical  daring,  hardly  has  its  equal  in  the 
brightest  visions  of  fiction.  The  American  Board  saw 
their  way  clear  to  open  a  Christian  mission  in  Oregon, 
but  the  highest  prudence  could  not  entrust  this  opening 
to  less  than  two  men,  and  they  must  take  their  wives 
with  them. 

At  no  point  in  this  long  international  struggle  for 
Oregon  do  the  two  policies,  the  English  and  the  Ameri- 
ican,  so  radically  diverge  as  at  this  point,  where  the 
successful  policy  takes  on  the  honorable  family  type. 
It  was  traditional  in  the  early  policies  of  fur-trading 
England,  and  of  France,  and  Spain,  ordinarily  in  colo- 
nizing and  civilizing  the  New  World,  to  esteem  lightly 
the  institution  of  the  family,  and  make  but  poor  pro- 
visions for  it. 

Three  persons,  and  no  less,  can  carry  agriculture,  man* 


A  LONG  BRIDAL    TOUR.  123 

ufactures,  trade,  and  civil  government  into  a  wilderness, 
and  make  it  over  into  neighborhoods  of  good  society  ;  and 
those  three  are  the  husband,  the  wife,  and  the  child.  Only 
the  honorable  and  honored  marriage  tie  can  hold  that 
society  from  turning  back  into  savage  wilderness.  With- 
out the  sacred  alliance  implied  in  those  two  noblest  and 
strongest  vrords  in  language,  husband  and  wife,  there  is 
no  civilization  to  man.  These  two  wives  whom  we  are 
about  to  take  over  the  prairies  and  the  mountains  were 
not  the  first  to  enter  Oregon,  but  they  heralded  the 
great  coming  immigration  of  family  life,  and  it  was  a 
novelty  on  the  northwest  coast. 

At  just  this  point  Spaniard,  Frenchman,  and  Hudson 
Bay  man  made  a  vast  mistake  in  taking  possession  in 
North  America,  and  showed  a  vast  weakness  in  holding 
and  developing  the  possessions  first  taken.  Their  very 
idea  of  a  colony  had  in  it  a  radical  and  fatal  defect.  In 
the  early  peopling  of  Canada  the  colonists  were  traders, 
soldiers,  priests,  and  nuns  ;  and  husbands  and  wives  were 
the  rare  exception.  To  remedy  this,  single  females  were 
sent  out  afterward.  Girls  of  the  poorer  classes  were 
taken  from  the  hospitals  of  Paris  and  Lyons.  In  1 665, 
one  hundred  were  thus  sent  and  married  at  once.  Two 
years  later  one  hundred  and  nine,  mostly  of  a  higher 
grade,  were  sent  on  request  of  officials  in  Canada,  and  a 
royal  bonus  was  bestowed  on  officers  who  married  them. 
La  Motte  received  fifteen  hundred  livres  for  marrying 
in  that  country.  The  home  government  found  it  diffi- 
cult to  send  over  enough  peasant  girls,  and  many  from 
the  cities  were  of  indifferent  virtue.  Yet,  after  full 
ships  of  them  had  arrived,  not  one  would  be  without  a 
husband  at  the  end  of  two  weeks.  Some  of  the  more 
notorious  were  reshipped  to  France.  On  arrival  at  Que- 


124      OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR   POSSESSION. 

bee  and  Montreal  they  were  lodged  in  large  houses,  un- 
der matronly  care,  where  the  suitors  visited  and  made 
their  selections,  much  as  servant  girls  are  now  secured. 

Bounties  were  paid  on  early  marriages,  as  for  the  young 
man  under  twenty  and  the  girl  under  sixteen,  twenty 
livres  each,  and  sometimes  the  king's  gift  added  a  house 
and  provisions  for  eight  months.  The  father  was  pun- 
ished who  did  not  marry  his  sons  and  daughters  at  those 
early  years,  and  a  bachelor  had  little  mercy  shown  him, 
for  he  was  forbidden  to  hunt,  fish,  or  trade  with  the  In- 
dians, or  partake  of  Indian  life.  When  the  annual  im- 
portation of  girls  was  nearly  due,  government  orders 
were  issued  that  single  men  must  be  married  within 
a  fortnight  of  their  arrival.  "  Mother  Mary  "  informs 
us  that  "  no  sooner  have  the  vessels  arrived  than  the 
young  men  go  to  get  wives,  and,  by  reason  of  the  great 
number,  they  are  married  off  by  thirties  at  a  time." 

The  results  were  inevitable,  from  such  an  enforced 
condition  of  society.  The  family  did  not  become  the 
corner-stone  of  a  prosperous  civil  state,  and  morals  de- 
generated. In  the  absence  of  the  real  home,  social 
vices  seized  the  communities.  Says  one  author :  "  At 
Three  Rivers  there  are  twenty-five  houses,  and  liquor 
may  be  had  at  eighteen  or  twenty  of  them."  One  Jean 
Bourdon,  a  licensed  innkeeper,  "  is  required  to  establish 
himself  on  the  great  square  of  Quebec,  close  to  the 
church,  so  that  the  parishioners  may  conveniently  warm 
and  refresh  themselves  between  the  services." l 

A  similar  policy,  with  a  similar  and  natural  misfortune 
following,  was  adopted  in  colonizing  Louisiana.  In 
1720,  about  six  hundred  immigrants  arrived  at  Mobile, 
but  many  of  the  females  were  from  the  Hospital  Gene- 

i  The  Old  Regime  in  Canada,  Parkman,  ch.  13.     See,  also,  cha. 
20,  21. 


A  LONG  BRIDAL   TOUR.  125 

ral  of  Paris.  This  practice  continued  for  years  to  the 
great  detriment  of  the  province.  After  a  foolish  exper- 
iment the  king  forbade  the  exportation  of  convicts  as 
colonists,  but  continued  to  send  girls  of  very  mixed 
qualities.  At  the  same  time  many  poor  and  virtuous  wo- 
men were  sent  to  Louisiana,  where  they  founded  some 
of  the  best  families  of  the  state.  But  this  method  of 
founding  the  family,  under  government  order,  without 
regard  to  affinities  and  choices,  left  that  magnificent 
province  quite  in  a  state  of  nature  from  the  days  of  De 
Soto  to  its  annexation  to  the  United  States.  Spanish 
and  French  were  alike  in  this  theory  and  practice  of 
colonization,  and  hence  failed  to  hold  and  develop  their 
possessions  in  North  America. 

Even  the  English  made  similar  mistakes  and  failures. 
When  Florida  belonged  to  Great  Britain  Lord  Rolle,  in 
1764,  attempted  a  colony  on  the  St.  John's  River,  "  to 
which  he  transported  nearly  three  hundred  miserable 
females,  who  were  picked  up  in  the  purlieus  of  London." 
Of  course  his  Charlotia  was  a  failure.  In  the  Virginia 
colony,  quite  early,  a  wife  was  to  be  had  at  the  cost  of 
importation,  varying  from  one  hundred  and  twenty  to 
two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  tobacco.  Yet  such  were 
maids  of  virtuous  education  and  habit. 

But  this  apparent  yet  not  real  wandering  which  we 
have  indulged  must  be  turned  again  to  our  Oregon.  As 
I  have  shown  all  along,  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  in- 
troduced into  their  possessions,  as  officers  and  servants, 
almost  uniformly  single  men,  and  young  men,  too.  It 
is  simple  history,  therefore,  and  should  be  no  matter  of 
surprise,  when  Martin,  the  friendly  historian  of  the  Com- 
pany, says  :  "  A  large  proportion  of  the  Company's  ser- 
vants, and,  with  very  few  exceptions,  the  officers,  are  -unit- 


126     OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

ed  to  native  women."  And  this  other  statement  he  adds 
naturally,  and  it  should  come  without  surprise.  At  Van- 
couver, and  he  writes  this  as  late  as  1849,  "  the  residents 
mess  at  several  tables ;  one  for  the  chief  factor  and  his 
clerks ;  one  for  their  wives,  it  being  against  the  regula- 
tions of  the  Company  for  their  officers  and  their  wives  to 
take  their  meals  together."  With  squaw  wives  and 
half-breed  children  it  might  not  be  agreeable,  but  what 
is  to  be  said  of  the  civilization,  nearly  two  centuries  old, 
which  interdicts  the  family  table  from  Hudson  Bay  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean  ?  The  two  brides  whom  we  are  fol- 
lowing to  the  Columbia  are  the  type  of  another  social 
order  and  will  introduce  another  state  of  society. 

Now  and  then  one  ordered  a  wife  from  his  native  land, 
as  already  stated,  and  the  books  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  show  that  the  order  was  honored,  by  the  re- 
ceipt entered :  "  Received,  one  wife  in  good  condition." 
But  this  was  an  imported  luxury  which  few  could  enjoy. 
As  a  general  result  the  increase  of  population  was  half- 
breed  ;  European  civilization  went  down  towards  the  In- 
dian type  of  life  in  North  America,  meeting  half  way, 
more  or  less,  in  the  wigwam  and  shanty  ;  the  elevating, 
refining,  ennobling  influence  of  woman,  which  makes  the 
larger  part  of  the  true  home,  was  wanting,  and  society, 
in  the  Hudson  Bay  country,  became  a  dubious  hyphen 
between  the  savage  and  the  civilized.  The  arrival  of 
those  missionary  families,  as  the  forerunners  of  the  or- 
dinary immigration  from  the  States,  foretold  a  new  era 
on  the  north-west  coast.  They  turned  a  tide  that  had 
had  an  Arctic  course  for  almost  two  centuries. 

"  Yon  stream,  whose  courses  run, 

Turned  by  a  pebble's  edge, 
Is  Athabasca,  rolling  toward  the  sun, 
Through  the  cleft  mountain-ledge. 


A  LONG  BRIDAL   TOUR.  127 

The  slender  rill  had  strayed, 

But  for  the  slanting  stone, 
To  evening's  ocean,  with  the  tangled  braid 

Of  foam-flecked  Oregon." 

The  betrothed  of  Dr.  Whitman  consented  to  the  ar- 
duous mission,  while  more  than  a  score  of  devoted  men 
declined  the  howling  wilderness  and  savage  inhabitants. 
They  preferred  more  inviting  mission  fields  and  easier 
work  beyond  the  sea.  It  was  a  long  search  to  find  a 
man  who  was  willing 

"  To  lose  himself  in  the  continuous  woods 
Where  rolls  the  Oregon,  and  hears  no  sound 
Save  his  own  dashings." 

Those  prairie  trails  and  mountain  passes  were  strewn 
with  the  wrecks  of  emigrant  trains  and  the  bones  of  rival 
traders  and  trappers.  Many  Indians  there  had  been  so 
outraged  by  the  whites  that  a  white  face  was  the  signal 
for  revenge.  The  wanton  robbery  or  murder  of  unof- 
fending natives  had  already  cost  the  life  of  many  inno- 
cent white  men,  and  unavenged  wrongs  were  still  wait- 
ing for  their  chance  for  recompense. 

Dr.  Whitman  deferred  his  marriage,  and  continued 
the  search  into  the  early  spring  of  1836,  for  an  associate 
in  his  Oregon  work.  At  length  he  struck  the  track  of 
his  man,  and  found  himself  giving  chase  to  a  hybrid 
vehicle,  between  wagon  and  sleigh  —  no  uncommon 
carriage  in  the  backwoods,  and  mechanical  cousin  to 
Wyeth's  amphibium  —  which  was  catting  through  the 
crispy  and  crusty  snows  of  western  New  York.  It  car- 
ried the  Rev.  H.  H.  Spalding  and  his  fresh  bride,  on 
their  way  as  missionaries  to  the  Osage  Indians,  then 
holding  a  reservation  in  that  section. 

The  American  Board  had  put  Dr.  Whitman  in  pursuit 
of  this  couple.  He  overhauled  them  there  on  the  win- 


128    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

ter  highway,  and  sent  forward  a  hailing  call  that  they 
were  wanted  for  Oregon.  Question  and  answer  between 
the  two  carriages  soon  summed  up  the  case :  The 
journey  might  require  the  summers  of  two  years ;  they 
could  have  the  convoy  of  the  American  Fur  Compftny 
to  the  "  divide  ; "  the  Nez  Perces,  their  future  parish- 
ioners, would  meet  them  as  escort  for  the  remainder  of 
the  journey ;  the  food  would  be  buffalo,  venison,  and 
other  game  meats  ;  the  conveyance  would  be  the  saddle 
alternating  with  the  feet ;  the  rivers  they  would  swim 
on  horseback ;  and  their  housing  would  be  tents,  blan- 
kets, and  stars. 

Mr.  Spalding  said  to  his  wife,  recently  from  a  bed  of 
lingering  sickness,  "  It  is  not  your  duty  to  go ;  your 
health  forbids,  but  it  shall  be  left  to  you  after  we  have 
prayed  together."  Thus  talking  back  and  forth  between 
the  sleighs,  that  were  inverted  wagons,  and  with  each 
other,  they  entered  the  little  backwoods  village  of  How- 
ard and  drew  rein  before  the  small  tavern.  They  took 
counsel  together  from  on  high,  when  the  young  bride 
was  left  alone  for  her  conclusion.  Ten  minutes  and  a 
cheerful  face  brought  the  answer  :  "  I  have  made  up  my 
mind  for  Oregon." 

At  once  her  husband  pleaded  her  weak  state  —  the 
fatigues  and  privations  of  so  long  a  journey  —  three  thou- 
sand miles  at  least — and  two  thousand  of  it  in  saddle 
and  canoe  and  on  foot  —  the  Indians  frantic  for  captives 
and  revenge  —  distance  from  the  old  home  and  a  white 
man's  neighborhood  —  and  all  that  and  all  that.  The 
answer  was  ready ;  and  probably  man  or  woman  never 
came  nearer,  in  giving  it,  t6  the  spirit  of  its  author : 
"  What  mean  ye  to  weep  and  to  break  mine  heart  ?  For 
I  am  ready  not  to  be  bound  only  but  also  to  die  on  the 
Rocky  Mountains  for  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus." 


A  LONG  BRIDAL  TOUR.  129 

When  detailing  these  incidents  thirty-four  years  af- 
terward Mr.  Spalding  said,  with  charming  simplicity: 
"  Then  I  had  to  come  to  it.  I  did  not  know  anything." 
We  admire  the  heroism  rather  than  the  reasoning  of  the 
feeble  woman ;  but  ardor  not  unfrequently  does  more 
than  logic  in  producing  noble  results. 

It  was  all  settled  then  at  the  little  village  of  Howard. 
Dr.  Whitman  sent  a  messenger  to  his  betrothed  to  be 
ready  for  a  hasty  wedding  and  a  long  bridal  tour.  He 
started  off  for  his  two  Nez  Perce  boys.  The  wedding 
came  soon  ;  there  were  "  no  cards,"  and  the  bride  would 
"  receive  "  on  the  Columbia. 

What  a  bridal  tour  for  the  two  young  wives !  Travel 
on  the  frontier,  or  even  out  west,  was  not  what  it  is  to- 
day. Only  six  years  before  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
railroad  —  the  first  for  passengers  in  North  America  — 
had  had  an  august  opening  of  fifteen  miles  on  strap-rail 
and  with  horse  power.  It  even  tried  to  run  its  cars  by 
sail !  Not  twelve  months  before  the  Boston  and  Lowell, 
Boston  and  Worcester,  and  Boston  and  Providence  rail- 
roads had  opened.  Only  three  years  before  the  first 
steamer  had  entered  Chicago,  and  it  must  be  fifteen  yet 
before  the  first  locomotive  can  lead  in  a  passenger  train. 

How  young  and  small  Cincinnati  was  when  they 
passed  it !  The  first  white  born  citizen  of  that  city, 
William  Moody,  was  there  to  welcome  them,  only  forty- 
five  years  of  age.  At  Pittsburg  Catlin  warned  the  gen- 
tlemen against  the  presumption  of  attempting  to  take 
women  over  the  plains,  and  through  the  mountains,  and 
the  tragic  fate  of  one  company  was  detailed,  where  all 
the  men  were  murdered  by  the  Indians  that  the  one 
woman  might  be  carried  into  a  horrid  and  nnreported 
captivity.  Advice  to  turn  back,  warnings,  prayers,  and 
9 


130  OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

benedictions  followed  the,m  from  city  to  city,  till  they 
rounded  to  at  the  semi- American  town  of  St.  Louis,  and, 
mid  a  jargon  of  languages,  and  mixture  of  costumes, 
and  miscellany  of  merchandize  on  the  levee,  they  were 
taken  by  the  hand  and  welcomed  to  hospitable  homes. 
The  missionary  party  now  consisted  of  five,  Messrs. 
Spalding  and  Whitman,  with  their  wives,  and  "W.  H. 
Gray,  agent  frfr  the  proposed  mission. 

The  American  Fur  Company  was  fitting  out  its  annual 
expedition  up  the  Missouri,  and  to  the  mountains,  but 
to  admit  women  as  parties  in  the  expedition  was  a  ques- 
tionable novelty.  However,  the  Doctor  on  his  return 
trip  the  preceding  year  with  this  Company  had  so  acted 
the  good  Samaritan  when  the  cholera  struck  them,  that 
they  could  not  now  refuse.  They  therefore  promised 
to  take  the  missionary  party  under  convoy  when  they 
should  leave  Council  Bluffs. 

Four  years  before  the  two  disheartened  Nez  Perces 
had  left  those  same  streets  with  heavy  hearts  for  their 
dark  land  and  benighted  people,  but  now  light  and  hope 
followed  them  up  the  river.  The  party  pressed  on  in 
advance  of  the  fur  men,  but  by  vexatious  delays  in  the 
purchase  and  driving  of  stock  a  part  of  the  way,  and  by 
the  failure  of  the  boat  to  take  on  board  the  Doctor  and 
ladies  at  Liberty  Landing,  they  found  themselves  six  days 
behind  at  Council  Bluffs.  The  convoy  had  so  much 
the  start  out  on  the  plains. 

It  was  a  hard  chase  to  gain  all  this,  and  the  serio- 
comic incidents  of  such  a  trip,  in  an  inexperienced  com- 
pany, seemed  inclined  to  concentrate  on  the  clergyman. 
Inanimate  nature,  circumstances,  "  things,"  sometimes 
appear  to  assume  a  personality  and  take  a  will  to  make 
some  selected  one  the  object  or  butt  of  their  rude  and 


A  LONG  BRIDAL  TOUR.  131 

comic  jests  and  practical  jokes.  Mr.  Spalding  was 
kicked  by  a  mule,  shaken  by  the  ague,  stripped  by  a  tor- 
nado, not  only  of  his  tent  but  his  blankets,  and  crowded  off 
the  ferryboat  by  an  awkward,  uncivilized  frontier  cow,  to 
which  he  made  a  caudal  attachment  as  a  life  preserver. 
While  he  had  these  freaks  of  nature  played  off  on  him, 
he  entertained  some  doubts  of  overtaking  the  convoy, 
and  had  questions  about  a  return.  Between  these  serial 
mishaps  and  discouragements  his  feeble  wife  would 
bring  him  to  himself  by  the  remark :  "  I  have  started 
for  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  I  expect  to  go  there." 

Late  in  May,  1836,  and  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
they  came  to  the  Loup  Fork  of  the  Platte,  and  were 
cheered  to  hear  their  signal  gun  answered  from  the  op- 
posite bank.  They  had  almost  won  the  chase.  The 
convoy  started  off  early,  but  left  a  man  to  show  them 
over  the  river,  and  Mr.  Spalding,  lively  with  the  mem- 
ory of  the  incidents,  says  :  "  Late  that  night  we  mission- 
aries filed  into  their  camp,  and  took  the  place  reserved 
for  us,  two  messes  west  of  the  Captain's  tent,  and  so  we 
won  by  two  lengths." 

The  caravan  was  now  large,  consisting  of  about  two 
hundred  persons,  aud  six  hundred  animals.  They 
marched  aud  encamped  with  military  carefulness.  At 
night  the  stock  were  placed  in  the  centre  of  the  encamp- 
ment ;  enclosing  them  were  the  tents  and  wagons ;  and  en- 
circling all  a  close  cordon  of  sentinels.  All  this  was 
necessary  because  of  the  Indians,  more  or  less  hostile, 
always  thieving,  and  seldom  far  from  the  line  of  march. 

The  fur  men  were  exceedingly  kind  to  the  ladies.  A 
sense  of  honor  and  a  pride  that  they  were  thus  entrusted 
with  them,  and  withal  the  homage  that  manhood  always 
pays  to  the  true  woman,  led  them  to  show  favors  and 


132    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

courtesies.  The  choice  pieces  of  the  game  went  to  them, 
and  their  comfort  and  ease  were  a  kind  of  pilot  to  the 
Company.  No  man,  unless  he  be  a  sailor,  carries  a 
warmer  heart  and  stronger  arm  for  those  who  need  him, 
and  honorably  trust  him,  than  these  rough  mountain 
men. 

Four  of  the  party  had  it  as  their  business  to  bring 
into  camp  each  night  four  mule -loads  of  wild  meat. 
Yet  sometimes  there  was  a  failure,  as  there  was  of 
water,  or  sunshine.  Of  course  the  journey  had  its  per- 
petual variations.  There  was  the  scenery  of  prairie, 
timber,  and  stream,  the  buffalo,  antelope,  and  coyote, 
and  a  new  style  of  Indian  with  a  new  trick  at  stealing. 
More  ravines  to  be  filled,  a  more  ugly  ford,  and  more 
upsets  and  broken  wagons  varied  the  monotony  some 
days.  Sometimes  the  tempest  of  wind  and  rain  and 
thunder  would  come  before  night,  which  was  a  pleasing 
variation.  Yet  as  the  days  wore  by,  measuring  the  dis- 
tance between  them  and  loved  ones,  these  relieving 
changes  dropped  into  the  groove  of  sameness.  Mental 
as  well  as  physical  weariness  came  over  them,  and  they 
endured  the  passive  state  of  being  acted  upon  rather 
than  acting  —  a  painful  doom  to  an  energetic  nature. 

June  sixth  they  were  at  Laramie,  but  how  their 
nomad  Arab-wandering  contrasts  with  the  activity  and 
industries  in  that  Platte  valley  to-day  !  On  the  fourth 
of  July  they  entered  the  famous  South  Pass,  where  the 
Rocky  and  Wind-river  Mountains  almost  come  together, 
yet  leave  an  opening  for  human  tides  to  flow  to  and  fro. 
Here,  on  a  high  plateau,  the  head  springs  of  the  South 
Platte,  the  Yellowstone,  and  the  Columbia  show  their 
silver  threads.  This  is  the  grand  "  divide  "  of  the  waters 
of  the  Continent,  and  here  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 


A  LONG  BRIDAL  TOUR.  133 

keep  a  perpetual  agency  and  watch  that  each  may  take 
its  own  waters  in  sight  of  the  other.  Sometimes  it  is  a 
by-play  of  the  jaded  travelers,  while  resting  here  for  a 
day  or  two,  to  rob  each  ocean  by  carrying  a  cup  of  the 
young  river  half  a  mile  and  pouring  it  into  the  fountain 
stream  of  the  other. 

It  is  a  little  amusing  to  trace  through  this  pass  the 
routes  of  distinguished  explorers,  as  "  Fremont,  1842," 
"  Fremont,  1843,"  "  Stanbury,  1849."  It  may  give 
information  and  also  divide  honors  with  the  Pathfinder 
to  add :  "  Mesdames  Whitman  and  Spalding,  1836."  A 
United  States  corps  of  engineers  discovering  a  pass  in 
the  Rocky  Mountains  six  years  after  two  women  had 
gone  through  ! 

In  the  morning  of  that  day  Mrs.  Spalding  was  quite 
ill,  fainted,  and  thought  she  was  near  the  end  of  her  life 
journey.  They  lifted  her  tenderly  from  the  saddle,  and 
gave  her  what  repose  and  comfort  they  could  on  robes 
and  blankets.  The  long  tour,  with  its  always  varying 
but  never  ceasing  fatigues,  had  steadily  increased  the 
feebleness  with  which  she  left  her  New  York  home,  and 
her  end  seemed  nigh.  Rallying  her  remaining  strength, 
yet  showing  no  loss  of  her  womanly  fortitude  and  hero- 
ism, she  said :  "  Do  not  put  me  on  that  horse  again. 
Leave  me  here,  and  save  yourselves  for  the  great  work. 
Tell  mother  I  am  glad  I  came." 

That  column  of  caravan  life  marched  on,  as  it  does 
everywhere  in  this  world,  while  the  feeble  fall  out  of 
rank  and  a  few  linger  long  enough  to  care  for  the  dying. 
When,  however,  the  company  made  their  usual  camp  at 
evening  Mrs.  Spalding  was  brought  in  much  revived. 
Was  it  because  they  gave  her  to  drink  of  the  brook 
trickling  by,  whose  waters  were  to  run  through  her  great 
parish  to  the  Pacific  ? 


134  OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

"When  they  were  under  way  again,  and  had  advanced 
far  enough  to  be  on  the  Pacific  slope  of  the  country, 
twenty-five  hundred  miles  from  home,  the  missionary 
party  stopped  and  dismounted.  Then,  spreading  their 
blankets  and  lifting  the  American  flag,  they  all  kneeled 
around  the  Book,  and,  with  prayer  and  praise,  took 
possession  of  the  western  side  of  the  continent  for  Christ 
and  the  Church. 

There  are  few  scenes  in  American  records  that  sur- 
pass this  one  for  historic  grandeur.  For  a  century  and 
a  half  those  western  sections  of  the  New  World  had 
been  overrun  by  Europeans  who  left  but  faint  traces  of 
Christianity  and  civilization.  The  abused,  plundered, 
and  neglected  natives  had  brought  their  request  for 
light  and  the  Book  three  thousand  miles  to  the  nearest 
Christian  city,  only  to  be  disappointed.  This  little  band 
proposed  to  give  the  land  to  a  Christian  civilization 
from  sea  to  sea.  They  have  now  come  the  weary  way 
to  the  western  half  of  it.  Historic  figures  five  of  them, 
they  kneel  to  give  half  a  continent  to  the  better  times 
of  "  peace  on  earth,  and  good  will  toward  men."  Tlie 
two  Nez  Perec  boys  stand  by,  with  eyes  on  the  five,  and 
the  flag,  and  the  Book.  That  act  went  far  toward  the 
settlement  of  the  Oregon  question,  and  in  giving  to  the 
United  States  six  thousand  miles  of  Pacific  coast. 

We  have  other  grand  historic  scenes  on  canvas.  Bal- 
boa at  Panama,  taking  possession  of  the  Pacific  and  all 
its  lands  for  the  Crown  of  Spain  ;  the  landing  of  the 
Pilgrims  ;  Washington  assuming  command  of  the  Amer- 
ican army ;  Washington  surrendering  that  power  after 
the  Republic  was  established ;  the  First  Prayer  in  Con- 
gress, and  many  other  noble  memorials.  But  in  com- 
pass of  background  and  foreground ;  the  two  halves  of 


,     A  LONG  BRIDAL  TOUR.  135 

the  continent ;  the  parting  rivers  for  the  two  oceans ; 
the  moral  exigency  suggested  by  the  two  Indian  figures ; 
the  rounding  out  of  the  Republic  on  the  sunset  side,  as 
it  came  in  the  consequences ;  the  kneeling  men  and 
women  around  the  Book,  with  the  American  flag  float- 
ing over  them,  —  the  scene  is  worthy  of  any  panel  in 
the  Rotunda  at  Washington. 

How  well  the  picture  harmonizes  with  that  passage 
in  Washington's  first  inaugural  address :  "  No  people 
can  be  bound  to  acknowledge  and  adore  the  invisible 
hand  which  conducts  the  affairs  of  men  more  than  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  Every  step  by  which  they 
ha've  advanced  to  the  character  of  an  independent  nation 
seems  to  have  been  distinguished  by  some  token  of 
Providential  agency." 

A  few  more  stages  of  weary  travel,  and  our  little 
company,  who  are  to  do  so  much  in  adjusting  the  Ore- 
gon difficulties  and  enlarging  the  American  Union,  ar- 
rived at  the  great  mountain  rendezvous  of  trappers  and 
traders,  and  so  to  the  end  of  protection  under  con- 
voy. They  tarried  here  ten  days  to  recruit  and  prepare 
for  their  separate  march  to  the  Columbia.  Let  us  look 
in  on  the  grand  encampment  nestled  among  magnificent 
mountains,  and  sketch  a  few  scenes  that  disappeared 
with  the  past  generation,  and  that  in  this  rush  of  fron- 
tier life  are  fast  receding  into  antiquarian  background. 
Long  since  such  gatherings  ceased  to  be  realities. 

This  annual  fair  of  mountain  men  and  Indians  was 
held  midway  between  South  Pass  and  Fort  Hall.  The 
encampment  was  on  the  banks  of  Green  River,  a  head 
stream  of  the  Colorado,  whose  cold  waters  begin  their 
long  journey  of  twelve  hundred  miles  by  trickling  down 
the  snowy  canons  of  Fremont's  Peak,  and  there  rush 


136   OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

by  our  motley  multitude  to  frolic  madly  in  the  Black 
Canon,  five  hundred  miles  from  its  mouth  in  the  Gulf  of 
California.  Probably  this  is  the  wildest  scene  in  the 
world.  For  twenty-five  miles  the  river  plunges  down  a 
rocky  defile  between  precipice  banks,  from  a  thousand 
to  fifteen  hundred  feet  high,  leaving  the  water  unap- 
proachable and  only  to  be  looked  down  upon  from 
their  giddy  heights.  The  traders  gathered  here,  Amer- 
ican and  English,  bringing  all  the  comforts  and  finery 
that  the  red  man  so  covets,  while  Indian  tribes,  by  their 
representatives,  come  in  from  the  prairies  this  side  the 
mountains,  and  over  the  rocky  ranges,  beyond  the  Great 
Basin,  laden  with  the  fur  spoils  of  a  year.  It  was  their 
annual  holiday,  too,  in  which  to  break  the  dull  sameness 
of  their  life. 

The  first  dinner  of  our  friends  there  is  worthy  of  a 
record.  July  20,  1836,  the  table  is  spread.  It  is  a 
shaky  oilcloth  on  the  grass ;  the  plates,  tin  when  at 
Council  Bluffs,  now  battered  flakes  of  sheet  iron  ;  cups 
the  same,  but  not  so  flat ;  knives  of  the  butcher  species ; 
forks,  sticks  of  local  option  and  cut ;  venison,  and  buf- 
falo, and  mountain  sheep,  broiled  or  roasted  ;  seasoning, 
some  salt,  some  ashes,  and  some  sand.  For  second 
course  a  scant  service  of  mountain-made  bread,  some 
tea  and  a  very  little  sugar.  Two  Indian  chiefs  are  at 
the  board,  that  is,  the  oilcloth,  and  an  uncounted  num- 
ber of  Indian  waiters,  —  for  remnants.  The  grounds 
are  covered  by  fifteen  hundred  people,  of  mixed  blood, 
language  and  costume  ;  about  one  hundred  of  these  are 
American  traders  and  trappers;  fifty  are  French  of  the 
Canadian  type,  and  twenty  citizens,  including  the  mis- 
sion party.  The  rest  are  Indians. 

At  the  International  Indian  Fair  at  Mus-ko-gee,  in 


A  LONG  BRIDAL  TOUR.  137 

1880,  I  found  more  Indians,  about  two  thousand,  but 
much  less  Indian  life,  with  about  five  hundred  bronzed 
whites  intermixed.  Civil  and  savage  life  meet  here  to 
exchange  goods.  Similar  gatherings  are  still  observed 
as  great  holidays. 

The  goods  of  the  American  Fur  Company  are  in  log- 
pens,  covered  with  canvas,  poles,  or  brush,  on  a  turf  floor. 
The  equipage  of  the  campaign  is  dumped  near  the  store- 
cabin,  being  pack-saddles  and  the  miscellaneous  whatnots 
of  wilderness  life ;  encircling  these  are  the  white  camps, 
and  outside  of  all  the  posted  guards.  Between  the  trad- 
ing-hut and  the  river  mules  and  horses  are  made  safe 
against  stampedes  and  petty  thefts  by  a  double  row  of 
tents.  Adjoining  on  the  west  are  the  fires  and  screens 
of  the  trappers  and  hunters ;  and  for  three  miles  farther 
a  miscellany  of  wigwams  are  spread  along,  continuous  in 
tribal  sections,  hugging  Horse  Creek  above  the  junction 
with  Green  River. 

The  red  men,  and  the  mountain  men  too,  were  not 
unmindful  of  courtesy  to  their  white  lady  visitors,  and 
so  prepared  an  entertainment.  It  was  an  Indian  tour- 
nament, quite  enjoyable  after  it  had  been  frightful.  Six 
hundred  Indians,  mounted,  plumed,  painted,  and  decked 
with  all  the  insignia  of  war,  and  with  all  the  whooping 
and  yelling  and  noise-making  that  they  only  know  how 
to  produce,  with  horses  frantic  and  plunging,  came  rush- 
ing through  the  rendezvous.  One  needs  a  little  Indian 
blood  in  order  to  be  nerveless  on  such  an  occasion, 
even  when  he  knows  what  is  coming.  As  the  parade 
was  partly  to  entertain  and  partly  to  gain  a  view  of  the 
first  two  white  women  who  had  dared  to  enter  the 
mountains,  the  lino  of  rushing  was  laid  by  their  tents. 
They,  therefore,  had  all  the  benefit  of  position  at  the 
very  front. 


138    OREGON:    THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

But  there  were  others  to  gaze  on  those  women.  Hardy 
Rocky  Mountain  trappers,  who  had  not  seen  white 
women  for  twenty-five  years,  were  carried  back  by  the 
si^ht  to  the  days  of  a  mother  and  sister  and  school- 

O  » 

mates,  and  a  cottage  home  of  childhood-;  and  those  rough 
yet  strong-hearted  men  wept  like  children.  Their  man- 
hood came  back  to  them  when  they  saw  a  gown ;  and 
all  their  civilization  concentrated  in  the  awkward  doffing 
of  a  greasy  cap,  when  Mrs.  Whitman  or  Mrs.  Spalding 
walked  by.  Years  afterward  one  of  these  men  said: 
"  From  that  day  when  I  took  again  the  hand  of  a  civil- 
ized woman  I  was  a  better  man."  It  would  be  difficult 
to  find  a  tribute  to  woman  more  hearty  and  noble  than 
that.  The  grand  element  that  the  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany had  so  carefully  kept  back,  while  they  were  pre- 
serving wilderness  and  propagating  beaver,  was  on  the 
way  to  add  the  northwest  to  Christendom. 

The  joy  of  the  missionaries  was  much  increased  by 
meeting  here  a  large  delegation  of  the  Nez  Perces. 
When  Dr.  Whitman  turned  back  from  this  place  to  the 
States  in  the  preceding  autumn,  it  was  exceedingly 
gratifying  to  this  tribe  to  be  invited  to  meet  the  Doctor 
and  his  company  here  at  this  time.  They  were  there 
on  the  arrival,  and  the  pleasure  of  the  meeting  was 
mutual.  The  gratitude  and  gladness  of  the  poor  natives 
was  quite  demonstrative,  and  specially  towards  the  wo- 
men. They  almost  monopolized  the  ladies  as  the  sub- 
jects of  their  peculiar  care.  Ordinary  food,  and  such 
delicacies  as  the  mountains  afforded,  personal  services, 
their  rude  but  tender  and  hearty  kindnesses  —  all  this 
was  without  limit. 

The  ten  days  soon  ran  by,  letters  were  written  for 
the  States,  goods  reduced  and  repacked,  first  lessons  in 


A  LONG  BRIDAL  TOUR.  139 

Indian  companionship  well  conned,  a  Hudson  Bay  party 
engaged  as  an  escort,  and  finally  the  pioneer  brigade 
of  civilization  moved  on  westward.  They  reached  the 
English  Fort  Hall,  run  the  gauntlet  of  its  crafty  impedi- 
ments—  of  which  more  by  and  by  —  reduced  luggage 
again  and  pressed  on.  In  a  few  days  they  were  at  a  log 
pole,  and  brush  enclosure,  called  Fort  Boise.  Here  the 
Doctor  was  compelled  by  Hudson  Bay  Company  advice, 
not  highway  difficulties,  to  leave  his  wagon. 

By  and  by,  after  the  incidents  of  ferries,  and  fords, 
mountain  sides  and  canons,  overplus  and  half  rations, 
the  party  descended  the  Blue  Mountains,  and  looked 
into  the  valley  of  the  long-sought  Columbia.  Mount 
Hood,  the  tallest  sentinel  of  the  Cascade  range,  stood 
high  up,  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  away,  to  give  them 
welcome. 

On  the  second  of  September,  1836,  and  four  months 
from  the  Missouri,  and  thirty-five  hundred  miles  of 
weary  travel  from  their  childhood  home  and  marriage 
group,  the  open,  cordial  gates  of  Fort  Walla  Walla  re- 
ceived them.  The  bridal  tour  was  ended,  and  the  ac- 
quisition of  Oregon  begun. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

WHITMAN'S  "  OLD  WAGON." 

THE  Oregon  question  finally  turned  on  wheels.  Even 
Webster  and  Ashburton,  the  high  contracting  parties  to 
settle  the  international  boundary  on  the  north  from 
ocean  to  ocean,  could  carry  the  line  of  division  no  far- 
ther west  than  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Then  diplomacy, 
civil  engineering,  and  the  two  nations  —  all  concerned 
—  had  to  wait  for  the  wagons.  The  taking  of  one 
through,  overland,  to  the  Columbia,  by  Dr.  Whitman, 
was  the  most  important  act  in  all  preliminaries  in  the 
settlement  of  the  Oregon  controversy. 

At  first  only  two  parties  took  a  proper  view  of  a  wagon 
for  Oregon  —  Marcus  Whitman  and  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company.  In  1836,  when  the  wagon  was  at  Fort  Hall 
and  Fort  Boise  with  its  two  women  occupants,  it  sug- 
gested to  the  Company  the  family  and  a  civilized  home 
and  permanent  settlement  in  Oregon,  and  a  highway 
from  the  Missouri  to  that  settlement  which  others  could 
follow.  The  Company  therefore  determined  to  turn  the 
wagon  back,  "or  divert  it  to  California,  or  stop  it  abso- 
lutely. Dr.  Whitman  took  the  same  view  of  the  wagon, 
and  therefore  concluded  to  take  it  through  to  Oregon. 
But  we  must  go  back  a  little  in  the  narrative. 

When  the  fur-traders  and  the  mission  party  arrived 
at  Fort  Laramie,  as  we  have  seen,  it  was  assumed,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  that  all  wagons  and  carts  would,  as 


WHITMAN'S  "OLD    WAGON."  141 

usual,  be  abandoned,  as  it  was  thought  impracticable 
to  proceed  farther  with  them.  The  Doctor  had  been 
brought  up  where  there  is  much  natural  antagonism,  be- 
tween wheels  and  mountains,  and  he  had  been  educated 
to  overcome  it.  He  was  not,  therefore,  disposed  to  give 
up  to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  He  objected  to  the  aban- 
donment of  the  wagons. 

He  had  purchased  two  at  Liberty,  on  the  Missouri, 
and  now  it  seemed  very  desirable,  on  account  of  the 
ladies,  to  take  along  at  least  one  of  them.  There  was 
much  discussion  over  it  between  the  missionaries  and  the 
traders,  and  finally  the  latter  consented  to  make  the 
experiment,  and  at  the  same  time  added  one  of  their 
carts  to  the  mission  wagon.  Dr.  Whitman  was  put  in 
charge  of  the  carriages,  and  the  first  night  out  from 
Fort  Laramie  he  came  into  camp  late,  warm,  puffing, 
and  cheery  too,  for  he  had  had  only  one  upset  with  the 
wagon  and  two  with  the  cart.  So  affairs  progressed, 
with  various  accidents  and  incidents  to  wagon  and  cart, 
now  a  capsize  and  now  a  repair,  now  a  man  and  now  a 
mule  objecting  and  with  equal  Roman  firmness,  till  they 
arrived  at  the  rendezvous  or  great  fair  grounds. 

When  they  put  out  from  the  rendezvous,  all  parties 
and  persons,  except  the  Flat-Heads,  advised  them 
to  leave  the  wagon.  However,  after  camp  was  made- 
the  Doctor  came  in,  and  to  the  general  surprise,  with 
his  four-wheeled  companion.  "  He  was  totally  alone," 
says  Gray,  the  historian,  one  of  his  company,  "  in  his 
determination  to  get  his  old  wagon  through  to  the  waters 
of  the  Columbia,  and  to  the  uission  station  that  might  be 
established,  no  one  knew  where." 

There  is  no  other  sound  like  that  made  by  a  stoufc- 
loaded  wagon  on  a  rough  road ;  and  now  after  six  thou- 


142   OREGON:    THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

sand  years  or  so  of  stillness  in  those  wild  regions,  those 
sounds  woke  the  echoes  of  the  mountains.  Perhaps  out 
of  respect  to  the  pre-historic  Americans  we  ought  to 
double  that  six  thousand.  We  can  hear  that  Whitman 
wagon  now,  in  our  mental  ear,  and  it  will  help  the  hear- 
ing if  one  will  pronounce  aloud  the  name  that  the  In- 
dians gave  to  the  "  old  wagon."  They  put  into  jerky 
syllables  the  sounds  it  made  as  it  rose  and  fell  and  stopped 
in  the  soft  grass  and  among  the  rocks,  and  called  it : 
chick-chick-shani-le-kai-kash. 

On  the  caravan  moved,  traders  and  preacher,  and  wo- 
men, and  Indian,  mules,  pack-saddles,  and  ponies ;  the 
•wagon  far  in  the  rear,  now  saying,  on  the  grass  land, 
chick-chick,  and  now  among  the  rocks,  kai-kash.  Mr. 
Gray  says,  in  his  "  History  of  Oregon  "  :  "  It  is  due  to 
Dr.  Whitman  to  say,  notwithstanding  this  was  the  most 
difficult  route  we  had  to  travel,  yet  he  persevered  with 
his  old  wagon  without  any  particular  assistance.  From 
Soda  Springs  to  Fort  Hall  his  labor  was  immense,  yet 
he  overcame  every  difficulty,  and  brought  it  safe  through. 
I  have  thrice  since  traveled  the  same  route,  and  I  con- 
fess I  cannot  see  how  he  did  it." 

Arrived  at  Fort  Hall,  about  one  hundred  miles  north 
of  Salt  Lake,  all  baggage  and  luggage  were  reduced  as 
much  as  possible  and  repacked.  Here  all  parties,  mis- 
sion and  Hudson  Bay  and  the  Post  men  too,  combined 
to  say  that  the  wagon  could  be  hauled  no  farther.  The 
terrible  canons,  and  bottomless  creeks  in  the  Snake 
Plains,  made  it  impossible.  But  the  iron  Doctor  was 
immovable.  Then  they  said  that  he  must  at  least  take 
it  apart  and  pack  it,  if  it  went  on.  Finally,  the  indom- 
itable man  made  a  compromise,  converted  the  wagon 
into  a  cart,  loaded  in  the  duplicate  wheels  and  axletree, 
and  started  again  on  wheels  for  the  Columbia. 


WHITMAN'S  "OLD    WAGON."  143 

True,  when  they  came  to  the.  Snake  River,  both  the 
cart  and  its  driver  had  to  do  some  swimming,  but  they 
both  came  out  on  the  west  bank,  and  so  much  nearer  to 
Oregon.  So  they  entered  Fort  Boise,  two  miles  below 
the  old  Boise  City.  This  was  so  rude  an  inclosure  that 
it  would  hardly  pass  for  a  cattle  pen  or  mule  corral. 
Hero  the  cart  took  on  a  very  serious  look  and  so  did 
every  man  when  he  .looked  at  it.  The  expressions  of 
opinion  as  to  its  farther  advance  became  more  decided, 
and  some  of  them  tersely  brief,  and  to  missionary  ears 
more  inelegant  than  to  mountaineers.  The  escort  of 
Hudson  Bay  men  had  stopped  at  Fort  Hall,  and  all  but 
the  Doctor  felt  the  need  of  moving  on  in  a  light  and 
compact  and  very  defensible  order.  It  was  again  sug- 
gested to  take  it  apart,  and  pack  it  through,  if  the  mules 
carrying  it  would  not  slide  from  the  precipices  which 
they  would  have  to  scale  and  descend.  Finally  another 
compromise  was  effected.  The  wagon  should  be  left  at 
Fort  Boise,  till  some  one  could  come  back  and  take  it 
on  to  the  established  mission.  This  was  done  and  judg- 
ments harmonized,  and  soon  after  "  the  old  wagon " 
went  through,  the  first  to  pass  the  plains  and  the  moun- 
tain so  far  towards  Oregon. 

O 

Thus  the  irrepressible  energy  of  this  man  pioneered 
for  a  carriage  way  to  Oregon  in  183G.  The  year  before 
the  first  house  had  been  built  in  San  Francisco,  steam 
cars  had  run  out  from  Boston  toward  Lowell  and  Worces- 
ter and  Providence,  and  this  year  twelve  hundred  and 
seventy-three  miles  of  rail  had  been  laid  in  the  country, 
and  the  whistle  and  the  rattle  of  locomotives  were  full 
of  the  prophecy  of  the  104,813  miles  of  it  that  we  had 
at  the  close  of  1881.  So  the  chick-chick-shani-lc-kai-kash 
of  the  Doctor  was  not  one  of  the  minor  prophets. 


144    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

This  movement  of  the  nation  westward  on  wheels  is 
an  interesting  study.  One  of  the  earliest  items  in  it  may 
be  found  in  the  Records  of  the  City  of  Newton,  Massa- 
chusetts, for  the  year  1G87.  "  John  AVard  and  Noah 
Wiswall  were  joined  to  our  selectmen  to  treat  with  the 
selectmen  of  Cambridge  to  lay  out  a  highway  from  our 
meeting-house  to  the  Falls."  I  cannot  trace  a  current 

O 

tradition  to  any  other  board  of  highway  commissioners, 
which  says,  that  being  instructed  to  lay  out  a  highway 
into  the  wilderness,  they  in  due  time  reported  :  "  That 
they  had  laid  out  said  highway  to  a  bluff  in  the  wilder- 
ness, on  the  Charles  River,  between  its  upper  and  lower 
Falls  in  Newton,  and  in  the  judgment  of  the  commis- 
sioners that  point  was  as  far  westward  as  any  public  road 
would  ever  be  needed."  This  bluff  was  about  ten  miles 
"  out  west "  from  the  Boston  meeting-house  !  How- 
ever, the  "  western  fever "  so  prevailed  that  an  exten- 
sion of  the  public  road  more  than  ten  miles  from  Bos- 
ton was  demanded,  for  in  the  Records  of  the  Great  and 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  for  1683  we  find  this 
entry :  — 

"Whereas  the  way  to  Kenecticut  now  vsed  being 
very  hazardous  to  travellers  by  reason  of  one  deepe  riuer 
that  is  passed  fower  or  fiue  times  ouer,  which  may  be 
avoyded,  as  is  conceived,  by  a  better  and  nearer  way, 
it  is  referred  to  Major  Pynchon  in  order  yc  sajd  way  be 
lajd  out  and  well  marked.  He  having  hired  two  Indians 
to  guide  him  in  the  way,  and  contracted  w01  them  for 
fiuty  shillings,  it  is  ordered  that  the  Treasurer  of  the 
County  pay  the  same  in  country  pay  towards  the  effect- 
ing the  worke." 

One  century  and  one  year  after  the  Newton  survey, 
Rufus  Putnam  started,  and,  with  ox-cart  and  sled,  in  a 


WHITMAN'S  "OLD    WAGON."  145 

three  mouths'  journey  went  farther  west.  Now  we  hear 
<l  the  old  wagon "  of  Marcus  Whitman  rattling  along 
among  the  head  streams  of  the  Columbia.  This  remark- 
able and  now  historic  vehicle,  that  had  been  the  centre 
of  so  many  doubts  and  hard  sayings  and  anxieties,  as  a 
moving  treasury  coveted  by  Indians,  and  the  subject  of 
so  many  upsets  and  unneeded  baths,  and  that  had  been, 
developed  inversely  and  degradingly  into  a  cart,  finally 
and  later  came  out,  all  right,  on'the  lower  Columbia,  at 
Fort  Walla  Walla.  When  the  company  arrived  there  in 
advance  of  "  the  old  wagon  "  they  had  been  out  over 
four  months  from  the  Missouri  at  Liberty  Landing,  hav- 
ing traveled  about  twenty-two  hundred  and  fifty  miles. 
They  had  made  an  average  of  more  than  twenty-five 
miles  a  day,  which  was  a  good  rate  for  a  caravan,  since 
the  average  of  a  Roman  army  was  sixteen  miles. 

When  I  resided  in  St.  Louis,  the  old  family  carriage 
of  General  Clark,  the  first  that  ever  crossed  the  Missis- 
sippi, was  turned  off  at  auction  for  five  dollars.  Prob- 
ably to-day  its  remains  rest  in  some  spot  as  obscure  and 
covered  over  by  drift  in  the  stream  of  time  as  the  grave 
of  De  Soto  in  the  lower  Mississippi.  It  would  be  a  rare 
antiquity  and  treasure  to  head  a  procession  celebrating 
the  first  or  second  centennial  of  its  D  Annee  du  Coup. 
But  "  the  old  wagon  "  of  Dr.  Whitman  would  now  be  a 
rarer  treasure  and  relic.  It  carried  more  national  des- 
tiny than  the  stately  coach  of  the  General.  Very  pleas- 
ant historical  coincidences  associate  these  two  men  and 
the  two  carriages.  In  1804  the  General,  then  Lieuten- 
ant, went  over  to  view  the  newly  purchased  Oregon, 
and  took  the  first  look  at  the  Pacific  that  an  American 
citizen  ever  had  of  it  from  American  soil.  Thirty-two 
years  afterward  the  Doctor  followed  with  his  wagon  on 
10 


146    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

the  trail  of  the  General.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find 
two  single  acts  in  the  lives  of  two  men  which  have  so 
marked  American  history. 

The  work  was  done  substantially.  The  wagon  and 
the  two  brides,  Mrs.  Whitman  and  Mrs.  Spalding,  had 
won  Oregon.  The  first  wheels  had  marked  the  prairie, 
and  brushed  the  sage,  and  grazed  the  rocks,  and  cut  the 
river  banks  all  the  way  from  the  Missouri  to  the  Colum- 
bia. How  many  ten  thousands  have  since  been  on  that 
trail  with  their  long  lines  of  white  canvas-topped  teams ! 
The  first  white  women  had  crossed  the  continent,  and 
not  only  witnessed  but  achieved  the  victory.  In  our 
great  game  of  two  nations,  Oregon  is  already  practically 
won.  In  going  through,  Whitman's  wagon  had  demon- 
strated that  women  and  children  and  household  goods 
—  the  family  —  could  be  carried  over  the  plains  and 
mountains  to  Oregon.  If  so,  the  United  States  wanted 
Oregon,  and  afterward  two  hundred  wagons  went  over 
and  took  possession  of  it. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

ANXIETY    AND   STRATEGY   OF  THE   HUDSON  BAY 
COMPANY. 

IN  the  second  year  following  this  first  party  a  com- 
pany of  missionaries  passed  Fort  Hall,  with  wives,  nine 
persons  in  all,  exclusive  of  the  assistants.  Impediments, 
perils,  and  Indians  do  not  seem  to  have  been  put  before 
their  fancies  there  at  that  fur-traders'  Gibraltar,  for  they 
had  no  carriages.  They  had  acted  on  the  already  well 
established  impressions  in  the  east,  that  carriages  could 
not  travel  to  Oregon.  In  1839  a  similar  company  went 
through  in  the  same  way,  without  wagons,  and  so  far  as 
appears,  without  warnings  and  intimidations. 

"In  1840  three  missionary  ladies  from  New  York, 
Mrs.  Smith,  Clark,  and  Littlejohn,  and  their  husbands, 
and  the  first  emigrant  lady,  Mrs.  Walker  and  her  husband 
crossed  the  mountains  and  brought  their  wagons.  But 
on  reaching  Fort  Hall  they  were  compelled  to  abandon 
their  wagons  by  the  representations  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  who  declared  that  wagons  never  had  passed, 
and  could  not  pass  through  the  Snake  country  and  the 
Blue  Mountains  to  the  Columbia."  The  Rev.  Mr. 
Spalding,  the  companion  of  Dr.  Whitman,  tells  us  this, 
and  adds  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Walker  left  Oregon  for  Cal- 
ifornia in  1841,  and  that  sluTlvaa  the  first  American 
lady  to  settle  in  that  territory. 

In  1841  several  emigrant  families  reached  Fort  Hall 


148  OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

with  their  teams,  and,  like  the  most  of  their  predeces- 
sors, they  were  shaken  from  their  purpose  and  abandoned 
wheels.  During  this  period  of  struggle  to  stay  the  in- 
coming tide,  the  Company  offered  to  sell  saddles  to  those 
who  would  abandon  their  carriages.  They  also  were 
willing  to  furnish  supplies,  as  flour,  to  General  Palmer, 
at  twenty  cents  a  pound,  but  they  were  quite  unwilling 
to  receive,  in  payment,  anything  but  money  and  cattle. 
Four  cows  or  two  yoke  of  oxen  they  considered  as  only 
a  moderate  price  for  one  hundred  pounds  of  flour. 

"  In  1842  considerable  emigration  moved  forward 
with  ox-teams  and  wagons,  but  on  reaching  Fort  Hall 
the  same  story  was  told  them,  and  the  teams  were  sacri- 
ficed, and  the  emigrant  families  reached  Dr.  Whitman's 
station  late  in  the  fall,  in  very  destitute  circumstances." 

The  journal  of  General  Palmer  furnishes  a  good  sum- 
mary of  the  strategy  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  and 
of  their  temporary 'success. 

"  While  we  remained  at  this  place  great  efforts  were 
made  to  induce  the  immigration  to  pursue  the  route  to 
California.  The  most  extravagant  tales  were  related 
respecting  the  dangers  awaiting  a  trip  to  Oregon,  and 
the  difficulties  and  trials  to  be  surmounted.  The  perils 
of  the  way  were  so  magnified  as  to  make  us  suppose  the 
journey  to  Oregon  almost  impossible.  For  instance,  the 
two  crossings  of  Snake  River,  and  the  crossing  of  the 
Columbia,  and  other  smaller  streams,  were  represented 
as  being  attended  with  great  dangers.  Also  that  no 
company  heretofore  attempting  the  passage  of  those 
streams  succeeded,  but  with  loss  of  men,  from  the 
violence  and  rapidity  of  the  currents,  as  also  that  they 
had  never  succeeded  in  getting  more  than  fifteen  or 
twenty  head  of  cattle  into  the  Wallamette  Valley." 


BRITISH  STRATEGY  AND  ANXIETY.  149 

"  In  addition  to  the  above  it  was  asserted  that  three  or 
four  tribes  of  Indians  in  the  middle  regions  had  com- 
bined for  the  purpose  of  preventing  our  passage  through 
their  country.  In  case  we  escaped  destruction  at  the 
hands  of  the  savages,  a  more  fearful  enemy  — famine 
—  would  attend  our  march,  as  the  distance  was  so  great 
that  winter  would  overtake  us  before  reaching  the  Cas- 
cade Mountains.  On  the  other  hand,  as  an  inducement 
to  pursue  the  California  route,  we  were  informed  of  the 
shortness  of  the  route,  when  compared  with  that  to  Ore- 
gon, as  also  of  the  many  other  superior  advantages  it 
possessed." 

After  the  breach  was  fairly  made  through  the  moun- 
tains, and  the  first  low  waves  of  the  coming  eastern  tide 
were  heard  and  then  felt  — 

"  The  first  low  wash  of  waves  where  soon 
Shall  roll  a  human  sea  "  — 

the  Company  placed  men  at  their  posts  all  along  the 
Whitman  trail  to  misrepresent  facts,  alarm  the  immi- 
grants, delude  them,  turn  them  to  California,  or  deprive 
them  of  their  teams. 

In  1842  immigrants  to  the  number  of  one  hundred  and 
thirty-seven,  men,  women,  and  children,  secular  and  mis- 
sionary, had  run  the  gauntlet  of  the  traders,  and  escaped 
the  financial  steel-traps  of  a  monarch  monopoly  all  along 
the  path.  But  they  had  been  forced,  by  alarms  and 
dangers  made  to  order,  to  leave  their  wagons  behind. 
This  number  was  made  up  of  twenty-one  Protestant  min- 
isters, three  Roman  Catholic,  fifteen  church  members, 
thirty-four  white  women,  thirty-two  white  children,  and 
thirty-five  American  settlers,  twenty-five  of  whom  had 
native  wives. 

Meanwhile,  by  the  published  journals  of  travelers  in 


150    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

the  regions  of  the  Company,  by  English  Review  arti- 
cles, and  carefully  arranged  newspaper  editorials  and 
correspondence  in  the  United  States,  and  by  adroit  de- 
posit of  material  in  the  departments  of  State  and  War  at 
Washington,  the  impression  was  made  popular  and  deep 
in  the  American  mind,  that  a  comfortable  overland  tran- 
sit for  emigrants  to  Oregon  was  out  of  the  question. 

The  managers  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  were  men 
of  rare  ability,  and  they  succeeded  in  putting  their  case 
ex  parte  and  most  successfully  before  the  United  States. 
What  the  "  Edinburgh  Review  "  said  of  them  in  1843 
was  already  proving  to  be  eminently  true.  "  They  are 
chieflly  Scotsmen,  and  a  greater  proportion  .of  shrewd- 
ness, daring,  and  commercial  activity  is  probably  not  to 
be  found  in  the  same  number  of  heads  in  the  world." 

Earlier  than  most  men  probably  they  saw  the  weak- 
ness of  the  absolute  claims  of  either  government  to 
Oregon  on  the  ground  of  discovery  or  treaty  or  purchase, 
or  of  wide  and  early  occupation.  They  probably  foresaw, 
but  too  late,  that  the  Oregon  question  would  be  disposed 
of  by  settlers.  They  began,  therefore,  early,  and  from 
points  distant  and  wide  asunder,  to  manufacture  evidence 
and  manipulate  public  opinion,  that  Oregon  could  not  be 
reached  by  an  immigrant  wagon.  Interested  witnesses 
filed  the  evidence  into  fair  volumes  and  international 
quarterlies,  and  so  made  up  the  case  for  the  trial,  which 
they  saw  was  hastening.  The  United  States  were  thus 
provided  with  testimony  against  their  own  interests  and 
rights,  and  its  power  was  imperceptible,  and  wide,  and 
deep,  to  hold  back  immigration.  Probably  thousands 
were  thus  kept  east  of  the  mountains.  Among  those 
who  joined  the  large  caravan  of  Dr.  Whitman  in  1843 
was  a  family  by  the  name  of  Zachrey,  from  Texas,  one 


BRITISFI  STRATEGY  AND  ANXIETY.          151 

of  whom  writes,  twenty-five  years  later :  "  We  had  been 
told  that  wagons  could  not  be  taken  beyond  Fort  Hull. 
But  in  this  pamphlet  thfe  Doctor  assured  his  countrymen 
that  wagons  could  be  taken  through  from  Fort  Hall  to 
the  Columbia  River  and  to  the  Dalles,  and  from  thence, 
by  boats,  to  the  Willamette  —  that  himself  and  mission- 
ary party  had  taken  their  families  through  to  the  Co- 
lumbia six  years  before.  It  was  this  assurance  of  the 
missionary  that  induced  my  father  and  several  of  his 
neighbors  to  sell  out  and  start  at  once  for  this  country." 
Mr.  Zachrey  speaks  not  only  from  the  distant  point  of 
Texas,  but  probably  for  very  many  who  would  have  been 
immigrants  on  the  Oregon  trail. 

The  Hudson  Bay  Company  felt  the  emergency,  and 
had  foreseen  the  impending  crisis,  ever  since  the  discus- 
sion and  struggle  over  "  the  old  wagon  "  at  Forts  Hall 
and  Boise,  in  1836.  Though  laid  away  in  quiet  for  a 
little  time  at  the  latter  place,  they  knew  that  its  broken 
bones  would  have  a  resurrection  and  go  on  the  trail  again, 
with  more  substance  than  a  ghost,  now  muttering  chick- 
chick,  and  now  shouting  kai-kash.  Not  that  they  could 
lose  the  absolute  ownership  and  sovereignty  of  the  Hud- 
son Bay  lands  proper,  for  they  held  those  in  the  honor 
and  perpetuity  of  the  Crown,  but  all  else  west  and  north- 
west and  southwest  to  the  Pacific  they  held  on  lease  and 
for  use  only,  and  the  Oregon  portion  by  joint  occupation 
with  the  United  States.  The  discovery  that  those  remote 
regions  were  worth  settling,  or  could  be  settled  by  over- 
land immigrants,  might  spoil  a  renewal  of  their  lease,  or 
terminate  their  joint  occupation. 

Moreover  and  specially,  the  Company  must  have 
known  the  agricultural  worth  of  that  vast  region  between 
Lake  Winnipeg  and  the  Pacific,  and  its  natural  worth 


152  OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

to  Great  Britain  for  immigration.  What  is  said  now  so 
abundantly  and  justly  of  that  country,  in  the  interests  of 
the  Canadian  Pacific  railway  —  a  line  of  about  seventeen 
hundred  miles  —  if  said  in  the  time  to  which  we  have 
now  brought  down  our  narrative,  might  have  opened 
that  magnificent  region  to  over-crowded  Ireland  and  Eng- 
land too.  It  was  not  done,  and  the  United  States  has 
opened  her  wild  frontier,  and  diverted  the  swarming  im- 
migrants from  the  Crown  to  the  Republic.  Now  since 
development  by  the  United  States  has  shown  the  value 
of  what  has  been  both  carelessly  and  designedly  called 
the  Great  American  Desert,  the  English  are  looking  to 
their  part  of  it  and  to  the  saving  of  their  own  emigrants 
to  their  own  government.  The  policy  of  exclusion 
and  secrecy  and  silence  maintained  by  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  lest  the  fur-bearing  animals  be  scared,  dam- 
aged English  interests  quite  as  much  as  it  threatened 
American. 

It  was  a  remarkable  case  of  anxiety.  This  ablest  cor- 
poration and  highest  monopoly  in  the  world  —  the  East 
India  Company  excepted  —  was  forced  to  grapple  with 
an,  exigency  !  It  had  had  for  nearly  two  centuries  the 
ownership  and  regency  of  a  country  of  fabulous  extent, 
and  when,  by  lease  from  the  Crown,  they  added  to  it  the 
"Indian  countries,"  this  domain  was  one  third  beyond 
all  European  areas.  Now  such  a  Company  was  driven 
into  anxiety.  It  was  confronted  and  troubled  and  forced 
into  strategy  by  an  "  old  wagon."  Under  this  fear  they 
fought  all  its  kith  and  kin  as  they  drove  up  to  Fort  Hall, 
and  they  spread  the  impression  through  the  United 
States,  from  New  Hampshire  to  Texas,  that  wheels 
could  not  be  driven  from  the  Snake  River  valley  to  the 
Columbia. 


BRITISH  STRATEGY  AND  ANXIETY.          153 

Not  only  did  the  Company  hold  this  known  pass  by 
representing  it  to  be  impassable  for  carriages,^!  t  they 
kept  the  knowledge  of  other  passes  a  secret.  While 
their  trappers  and  traders  ferreted  out  the  various  paths 
through  the  mountains,  the  popular  ignorance  in  this 
regard  was  surprising.  When  lying  by  at  St.  Vrain's 
Fort  in  1842,  and  on  his  first  expedition,  Fremont 
could  learn  nothing  of  worth  as  to  passes  in  that  region 
for  emigrants  through  the  mountains.  St.  Vrain's  was 
on  the  South  Platte,  near  to  the  present  city  of  Greeley 
and  not  far  north  of  Denver.  The  main  thing  that  he 
learned  was  that  any  possible  trails  would  be  impossible 
for  wagons.  When  in  that  vicinity  the  following  year 
he  said :  "  I  had  been  able  to  obtain  no  certain  informa- 
tion in  regard  to  the  character  of  the  passes  in  this 
portion  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  which  had  always  been 
represented  as  impracticable  for  carriages." 

If  a  carriage  highway,  of  fair  comfort  for  immigrants, 
should  be  discovered  to  Oregon,  and  the  fact  became 
generally  known,  settlements  in  that  distant  region 
would  be  hastened  and  multiplied.  The  Hudson  Bay 
Company  well  knew  this.  From  the  days  of  the  Revolu- 
tion frontier  life  had  been  crowding  the  wilderness  west- 
ward, daringly  and  often  recklessly.  If  this  tide  should 
force  a  crevasse  through  the  mountains  it  would  obvi- 
ously spoil  the  Pacific  game  preserve  of  that  Company. 
Hence  this  crisis  in  their  affairs,  and  great  anxiety. 

It  is  an  interesting  coincidence,  if  nothing  more,  that 
at  this  time,  1842-3,  Sir  George  Simpson,  for  many 
years  governor  of  the  Company,  made  the  tour  of  the 
continent  across  their  possessions,  spent  much  time  with 
careful  observations  on  the  north-west  coast,  and  is  said 
to  have  enjoyed  (about  that  time)  protracted  social  re- 


154     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

lations  at  Washington  with  Daniel  Webster,  then  Sec- 
retary oi  State. 

From  Montreal  he  was  twelve  weeks  and  five  thou- 
sand miles  distant  from  his  starting-point  in  passing  to 
Fort  Vancouver,  ninety  miles  from  the  sea,  on  the  Co- 
lumbia. On  the  way,  he  says,  at  Bear  Creek  "  we  ob- 
tained tidings  of  a  large  body  of  emigrants,  who  had 
left  Red  River  for  the  Columbia  a  few  days  previous 
to  our  arrival  from  Montreal."  This  could  have  been 
no  surprise  to  Sir  George  as  governor,  but  it  was  a  nov- 
elty in  the  policy  of  the  Company.  It  was  the  first 
band  of  immigrants  that  they  had  ever  authorized  within 
their  territory,  and  five  years  later  than  the  Spalding 
and  Whitman  band  to  the  same  destination. 

The  Governor  visited  the  headquarters  of  Dr.  Whit- 
man, and  was  led  to  notice  and  make  record  that  "  from 
the  inhabited  parts  of  the  United  States  it  is  separated 
by  deserts  of  rock  and  sand  on  either  side  of  the  dividing 
ridge  of  mountains  — deserts  with  whose  horrors  every 
reader  of  Washington  Irving' s  '  Astoria  '  is  familiar.  Or, 
if  the  maritime  route  be  preferred,  the  voyage  from  New 
York  to  the  Columbia  occupies  two  hundred  degrees  of 
latitude,  and  by  the  actual  course,  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  of  longitude,  while  the  navigation  of  the  river 
itself,  up  to  the  mouth  of  the  Willamette,  including  the 
detention  before  crossing  the  bar,  amounts  on  an  average 
to  far  more  than  the  run  of  a  sailing  packet  across  the  At- 
lantic. ...  In  the  direction  of  California  .  .  .  the 
country,  if  less  barren  than  to  the  eastward,  is  far  more 
rugged.  With  respect,  moreover,  to  the  savage  tribes, 
the  former  track  is  more  dangerous  than  the  latter." 

Surely  this  was  discouraging  enough  for  any  pion- 
eers, who  were  thinking  of  trying  a  farther  front  in  the 


BRITISH  STRATEGY  AND  ANXIETY.          155 

western  wilds,  whether  they  would  go  by  land  or  water. 
And  when  arrived,  the  colony  would  seem  to  have  found 
only  an  oasis,  with  an  unmeasured  border  of  desert. 

As  to  previous  claims  on  Oregon  and  final  possession 
the  Governor  speaks  almost  like  an  oracle  :  "  On  behalf 
of  England,  direct  arguments  are  superfluous ;  for,  until 
some  other  power  puts  a  good  title  on  paper,  actual 
possession  must  be  held  to  be  conclusive  in  her  favor." 
And  he  has  passed  "  a  large  body  of  emigrants  "  coming 
in  from  the  Red  River,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  he  has 
planned  for  a  larger  one  the  year  following.  So,  those 
who  are  in  possession  must  hold  the  country,  and  he  has 
provided  that  they  shall  be  forthcoming. 

Then  Sir  George  warms  up  into  prophecy,  and  utters 
also  challenging  words :  "  The  United  States  will  never 
possess  more  than  a  nominal  jurisdiction,  nor  long  pos- 
sess even  that  on  the  west  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
And  supposing  the  country  to  be  divided  to-morrow  to 
the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  most  unscrupulous  patriot 
in  the  Union,  I  challenge  Congress  to  bring  my  predic- 
tion and  its  power  to  the  test  by  imposing  the  Atlantic 
tariff  on  the  ports  of  the  Pacific."  Certainly  such  sen- 
tences, aptly  quoted  from  the  governor  of  a  huge  monop- 
oly into  periodicals  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic,  would 
give  a  check  to  ardent  emigrants  from  the  States  to  Ore- 
gon. There  is  in  this  challenge  the  savor  of  long  resi- 
dence in  a  semi-civilized  region,  where  the  civil  and 
military  and  financial  headship  have  been  united  in  one 
man,  and  made  him  necessarily  more  or  less  autocratic. 
There  is,  moreover,  what  may  be  called  a  corporation 
tone  in  the  language  :  and  it  is  wont  to  show  itself, 
when  the  magnitude,  and  absoluteness,  and  perpetuity 
of  the  chartered  interests,  are  so  as  to  be  able  to  keep 
even  the  creating  government  at  a  respectful  distance. 


156    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

In  view- of  what  took  place  in  a  few  years  following 
concerning  Oregon,  and  California,  and  Alaska,  these 
passages  from  the  Governor  are  decidedly  and  pleasantly 
breezy.  lie  proceeds  :  "  England  and  Russia,  whether 
as  friends  or  as  foes,  cannot  fail  to  control  the  destiny 
of  the  human  race,  for  good  or  for  evil,  to  an  extent 
which,  comparatively,  confines  every  other  nation  within 
the  scanty  limits  of  its  own  proper  locality."  This  is 
the  language  of  one  who  has  spent  his  life  in  trapping 
beaver,  and  bears,  and  wolves,  and  foxes,  forgetting  that 
men  are  another  race  of  beings.  Since  this  very  Eng- 
lish statement  was  made  the  United  States  have  come 
into  recognized  possession  of  six  thousand  four  hundred 
and  eleven  miles  of  Pacific  coast,  not  reckoning  the 
shore  indentations  of  Alaska,  while  England  has  about 
four  hundred  and  fifty,  not  reckoning  the  shore  inden- 
tations of  British  Columbia. 

It  is  sometimes  thought  that  on  and  about  the  anni- 
versary of  her  independence  the  United  States  indulges 
in  an  exaggerated  use  of  the  English  language  concern- 
ing her  domain  ;  and  then  sometimes  it  is  remembered 
that  she  inherited  her  mother's  tongue  and  all  its  elas- 
ticity. Whether  the  United  States  has  alreadygrown  to 
fill  "  the  scanty  limits  of  its  own  proper  locality  "  may  be 
a  question.  Another  addition  to  her  six  growths  would 
probably  be  one  of  necessity  rather  than  of  preference. 
She  now  embraces  an  area  equal  to  seventy-eight  Eng- 
lands. 

As  to  these  vapors  of  Sir  George  Simpson  concerning 
United  States  ownership  and  government  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  and  growth -of  territory  there  or  elsewhere,  it  will 
be  kindly  to  remember  that  when  he  said  these  things 
he  had  recently  emerged  -into  this  moving  world  from 


BRITISH  STRATEGY  AND  ANXIETY.          157 

his  realm,  as  governor ;  in  parts  of  which  the  mail  is 
delivered  only  annually,  and  the  Canadian  newspaper  it 
brings  is  two  years  old  aud  tho  European  three  when 
they  read  it. 

Leaving  Oregon  he  visited  San  Francisco,  and  then 
thought  that  the  only  way  to  prevent  its  falling  into 
American  hands  was  "  by  the  previous  occupation  of  the 
post  by  Great  Britain."  And  he  proceeds  to  say  that 
England  "  has  one  road  open  to  her  by  which  she  may 
bring  California  under  her  sway,  without  either  force 
or  frand,  without  either  the  violence  of  marauders,  or 
the  effrontery  of  diplomacy.  Mexico  owes  to  British 
subjects  a  debt  of  more  than  fifty  millions  of  dollars. 
By  assuming  a  share  of  this  debt  on  condition  of  being 
put  in  possession  of  California,"  etc. 

The  Macnamara  scheme  was  a  natural- outcome  of 
these  annexing  meditations,  the  unsigned  papers  of  which 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  United  States,  while  Califor- 
nia, by  a  kind  of  civil  gravitation,  was  falling  the  same 
way.  So  Sir  George  Simpson  journeyed  round  the 
world.  A  pleasing  inaptness  and  almost  amusing  awk- 
wardness, as  to  these  prophecies  about  Oregon  and  the 
United  States,  and  policies  about  California,  is,  that 
*  after  the  United  States  had  peacefully  reclaimed  the 
one,  and  taken  possession  of  the  other,  Sir  George  pub- 
lished his  narrative  and  opinions  in  1847. 

It  is  true  the  Governor  had  some  warrant  for  his  as- 
sumption and  confident  predictions.  For  about  this 
'  time  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  had  twenty-three  posts 
and  five  trading-stations  in  the  northwest ;  it  had  ab- 
sorbed ten  rival  companies,  not  leaving  one,  American 
or  Russian,  to  dispute  its  sway ;  and  it  had  turned  back 
or  broken  up  seven  immigrant  expeditions  from  the 


158  OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

States  to  Oregon.  He  had  not,  however,  fully  esti- 
mated the  force,  contents,  and  consequences  of  Dr. 
Whitman's  wagon. 

Meanwhile,  the  Doctor  was  receiving  at  his  station 
the  remnants  of  these  broken  bands,  wasted  and  fam- 
ished. They  had  sad  stories  to  tell  of  the  gauntlet  they 
had  run  through  the  cordon  of  English  traders,  and  of 
the  high  price  of  flour  and  the  low  price  of  cattle  and 
wagons  at  Forts  Hall  and  Boise.  Like  certain  men  of 
old,  they  came  to  the  Doctor's  door  with  "  old  sacks 
upon  their  asses,  and  with  bottles,  old,  and  rent,  and 
bound  up,  and  old  shoes,  and  clouted,  upon  their  feet." 

Immediately,  those  failures  to  get  through  comfortably 
with  teams  were  reported  back  to  the  States,  and  were 
concentrated  at  Washington,  and  thence  radiated  all 
along  the  western  borders.  The  information  concern- 
ing the  difficulties,  and  dangers,  and  impossibilities  of 
passing  the  rivers,  and  mountains,  and  Indians,  says  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Spalding,  "  purported  to  come  from  Secretary 
Webster,  but  really  from  Governor  Simpson,  who,  mag- 
nifying the  statements  of  his  chief  trader,  Grant,  at  Fort 
Hall,  declared  the  Americans  must  be  going  mad,  from 
their  repeated,  fruitless  attempts  to  take  wagons  and 
teams  through  the  impassable  regions  to  the  Columbia, 
and  that  the  women  and  children  of  those  wild  fanatics 
had  been  saved  from  a  terrible  death  only  by  the  re- 
peated and  philanthropic  labors  of  Mr.  Grant  at  Fort 
Hall  in  furnishing  them  with  horses." 

These  carefully  prepared  rumors  and  misrepresenta- 
tions having  seemed  to  obtain  adroitly  the  endorsement 
of  Mr.  Webster,  held  back,  for  a  time,  many  men,  after- 
ward eminent  in  the  history  of  Oregon,  till  Whitman 
broke  the  spell  and  delusion  by  his  immense  caravan 


BRITISH  STRATEGY  AND  ANXIETY.          159 

of  wagons,  and  families,  and  stock,  in  the  summer  of 
1843. 

The  story  that  opens  here  has  not  its  superior  in 
American  history  for  high  purpose,  daring,  romance,  and 
grand  result.  Revere  and  Sheridan  had  their  rides  for 
the  welfare  of  the  nation.  Marcus  Whitman  had  his  to 
provide  the  Republic  with  a  Pacific  side. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

AVHITMAN'S  RIDE. 

THE  autumn  days  came,  and  russet  October,  1842, 
when  the  Oregon  mission  of  the  American  Board  was 
holding  a  business  session  at  "Waiilatpu.  While  attend- 
ing to  affairs,  Dr.  Whitman  was  called  to  visit  a  patient 
at  Fort  WTalla  Walla,  the  English  trading-post,  twenty- 
five  miles  away.  The  company  at  the  Fort  were  in  ex- 
cellent spirits  at  the  arrival  of  fifteen  bateaux,  loaded 
with  Indian  goods,  and  bound  up  stream  to  the  Frazer 
River  region.  A  score  of  chief  factors  had  them  in 

O 

charge,  and  these,  with  the  traders  and  clerks,  made  a 
jolly  addition  to  the  Fort's  ordinary  occupants.  The 
spirits  of  the  company  unexpectedly  gathering  ran  high, 
and  it  did  seem  to  the  Doctor  as  if  the  English  already 
had  Oregon  in  possession.  It  was  a  rare  occasion  to 
most  on  both  sides,  when  their  wilderness  paths  thus 
crossed,  and  they  could,  for  an  hour,  break  the  painful 
monotony  of  their  exile  life,  by  catching  a  few  ideas 
from  another  little  wilderness  world  outside  of  their  own. 
Then  came  the  dinner-table,  laden  with  the  spoils  of 
forest  and  river,  in  the  style  of  rude  baronial  hulls.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  spread  a  game  feast  where  nobler 
dishes  could  be  served,  than  that  grand  American  pre- 
serve there  offered.  Post  men  and  .  guests  were  jubi- 
lant ;  the  officers  sustained  well  the  dignity  of  Old  Eng- 
land at  the  head,  while  traders  and  subordinates,  graded 


WHITMAN'S  RIDE.  161 

down  the  table,  gave  way  to  easy  and  rough  jollity. 
Dr.  Whitman  alone  represented  the  United  States,  in 
such  a  "joint  occupation"  of  Oregon. 

It  has  been  noticed  that  at  the  close  of  1841  immi- 
grants from  the  United  States  had  entered  Oregon  to 
the  number  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven,  and  at  this 
time  about  one  hundred  more  had  been  added.  We  have 
also  marked  the  fact  that  in  his  overland  trip  to  the  Pa- 
cific, the  preceding  year,  Sir  George  Simpson  had  passed 
an  emigrant  company,  bound  out  from  the  Red  River  to 
the  Columbia.  The  Hudson  Bay  Company  had  become 
well  persuaded  that  Oregon  could  be  taken  and  held 
only  by  the  settlements  of  civilization,  and  their  object 
now  was  to  secure  an  advance  on  the  Americans  in  this 
policy.  They,  therefore,  were  working,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  double  scheme  of  keeping  Americans  back,  and 
bringing  in  their  own  people  from  the  Red  River  coun- 
try. The  Selkirk  settlement  in  the  Red  River  valley 
was  made  for  like  purpose  by  this  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany in  181 1-12,  to  head  off  and  break  up  the  rival  and 
Canadian  Northwest  Company.  In  this  they  riot  only 
succeeded,  but  absorbed  that  Company  in  1821.  Now 
from  the  Selkirk  settlement  they  were  taking  a  colony 
to  the  Columbia  to  head  off  the  Americans. 

The  first  brigade  from  the  Red  River  consisted  of  about 
forty  families,  English,  Scotch,  French,  and  half-breed, 
and  after  some  dissensions  under  the  rigid  government 
of  the  Company,  a  part  of  them  had  made  their  way  so 
far  as  to  arrive  in  the  upper  valley  of  the  Columbia. 
Their  approach,  already  rumored,  and  the  condition  of 
the  Americans,  broken  and  discouraged  by  the  opposi- 
tion at  Fort  Hall,  attracted  the  attention  of  Dr.  Whit- 
man and  his  associates.  Still  the  movements  of  the 
11 


162   OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

English  did  not  alarm  them  as  the  year  1842  wore  away, 
and  partly  because  during  this  year  their  own  number 
was  nearly  doubled. 

While  the  interested  dinner  party  were  deep  in  their 
wild-wood  convivialities,  a  messenger  arrived  express 
down  the  river  announcing  that  the  colony  of  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  or  more  had  succeeded  in  crossing  the 
mountains,  and  were  near  to  Fort  Colville  —  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles  up  the  Columbia.  The  welcome 
news  sent  a  thrill  of  joy  along  the  tables,  and  carried  the 
excitement  of  the  hour  to  a  climax.  The  company  in- 
stantly took  the  import  of  the  announcement  and  wero 
jubilant.  Congratulations  passed  from  man  to  man.  A 
young  priest,  more  ardent  than  wise,  sprang  to  his  feet, 
and  with  a  twirl  of  his  cap,  and  a  shout,  exclaimed : 
"  Hurrah  for  Oregon  !  America  is  too  late,  and  we  have 
got  the  country ! "  The  more  intelligent  at  the  table 
may  have  remembered  that  Mr.  Canning,  the  English 
minister,  had  expressed  his  determination  to  maintain, 
as  British  property,  any  footing  and  position  which  the 
Company  might  obtain  in  Oregon. 

As  by  instinct  Dr.  Whitman  seized  the  fact  announced, 
and  measured  its  full  import.  He  took  it  as  an  index  to 
a  policy.  At  once  he  assumed  that  it  should  be  known 
at  Washington,  and  a  tide  of  immigration  started  for  the 
northwest  from  another  direction.  He  fixed  his  pur- 
pose, laid  his  plans,  excused  a  hasty  departure,  and  in 
two  hours  his  Cayuse  pony,  white  with  foam,  stood  be- 
fore the  mission  door  at  Waiilatpu.  He  could  not  wait 
to  dismount  till  he  had  told  of  the  English  plot,  the  peril 
of  Oregon,  the  need  of  making  the  fact  known  to  his 
government,  his  purpose  to  face  the  winter  and  the 
mountains  and  plains  and  Indians,  to  carry  the  news, 


WHITMAN'S  RIDE.  163 

to  start  immediately,  and  to  return  the  following  season 
with  a  long  train  of  immigrant  wagons. 

Of  course  it  was  with  opposition,  reluctance,  and  anx- 
iety that  his  associates  came  slowly  into  the  plans  of  the 
heroic  man.  And  with  reason.  Few  men  could  at  once 
grasp  the  full  import  of  that  English  scheme,  and  re- 
solve to  thwart  it  in  person.  Dr.  Whitman's  associates 
needed  time  to  overtake  his  thoughts.  As  such  national 
exigencies  are  rare,  so  are  the  men  to  meet  them.  We 
had  another  man  on  the  Pacific  coast,  four  years  later, 
who  was  adequate  to  such  an  exigency.  He  took  oral 
hints  from  a  messenger,  and  the  unwritten  orders  of  cir- 
cumstances, and  turned  pivoted  California  to  the  Union, 
in  the  face  of  foreign  fleets  and  agents,  who  were  there 
with  well  matured  plans  for  other  ends.  The  prompt 
action  of  Fremont  and  the  splendid  results  tangled  some 
military  tape. 

The  winter  was  already  on  the  mountains,  and  while 
a  summer  trip  was  hard  enough,  the  cold  and  snows  of 
a  winter  journey  would  reduce  the  chances  for  success 
and  life  to  a  minimum.  He  had  no  time  for  delay,  for 
he  supposed  that  the  Ashburton- Webster  Treaty,  which 
would  cover  the  Oregon  question,  was  in  progress,  and 
might  be  hastened  through  before  Congress  should  rise 
on  the  fourth  of  March.  It  was  now  opening  October. 
Five  months  would  be  short  time  enough  to  allow  for 
four  thousand  miles,  mostly  made  on  horseback.  Al- 
lowance must  be  made  for  some  terrible  storms,  when 
they  would  be  compelled  to  lose  days  hi  snow-bound 
camps.  Half  frozen  and  winter-swollen  streams  were 
to  be  crossed  on  extemporized  floats,  which  it  would 
require  much  time  to  construct.  Hostile  Indians  might 
make  it  indispensable  to  take  detours  or  to  hide  for 
safety. 


164  OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

For  some  or  all  of  these  reasons,  it  would  be  the  part 
of  wisdom  to  avoid  the  direct  route  from  Fort  Hall  to 
the  Missouri,  as  more  dangerous,  both  from  the  severity 
of  the  winter,  and  the  hostile  mood  of  the  Blackfeet  In- 
dians. It  would  seem  best  to  strike  from  Fort  Hall 
southerly  through  the  Salt  Lake  Basin  into  New  Mexi- 
co, and  thence  to  the  Santa  Fe  trail  and  Bent's  Fort  on 
the  Arkansas,  and  so  to  St.  Louis. 

A  slight  recollection  of  the  terrible  experiences  of 
Fremont  in  those  mountains,  when  the  dangers  and 
means  of  resistance  and  of  escape  were  much  better 
known,  and  a  recollection  also  of  the  storms  that  have 
blocked  railroads  in  the  mountain  passes  and  on  the 
plains  that  lay  before  Dr.  Whitman  will  prepare  one  to 
estimate  the  daring  of  the  man.  No  wonder  his  weep- 
ing wife  entreated  and  his  associates  almost  forbade  his 
rash  enterprise.  But  it  was  in  vain.  All  that  was 
patriotic  in  the  noble  man  added  itself  to  the  Christian 
in  stirring  a  sense  of  duty,  and  he  said  to  them  that,  for 
the  emergency,  he  did  not  belong  so  much  to  the  Amer- 
ican Board,  as  he  did  to  his  country,  and  if  they  pressed 
opposition  he  would  throw  up  his  connection  with  the 
mission. 

The  issue  now  centred  in  that  mission  house  was  the 
possession  of  the  present  State  of  Oregon,  and  also  the 
territories  of  Idaho  and  Washington  —  an  area  equal  to 
thirty-two  states  as  large  as  Massachusetts.  After  six 
years  of  residence  and  travel  there,  Dr.  Whitman  knew 
the  natural  magnificence  and  possibilities  of  the  coun- 
try, as  probably  no  other  American  did.  Then  he  re- 
alized how  far  off,  and  how  little  known  or  appreciated 
Oregon  was  in  the  east,  and  how  slow  the  old  states  and 
settlements  were  to  seize  the  grand  issues  involved  in  the 


WHITMAN'S  RIDE.  165 

i 

new.  The  stoppage  of  immigrants  at  Fort  Hall  was 
fully  explained,  when  at  the  dinner  table  the  English 
shouted  a  welcome  to  the  brigade  from  Red  River.  It 
was  a  matter  of  actual  knowledge  and  certainty  that  Dr. 
Whitman  could  open  the  gates  to  an  incoming  American 
tide.  He  knew  that  he  held  the  key  to  those  gateways, 
and  he  felt  a  deep  conviction  of  duty  that  he  must  use 
it.  Then  the  Secretary  of  State  must  be  impressed  by 
United  States  evidence  as  well  as  by  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany's evidence,  as  to  the  accessibility  of  Oregon  to  emi- 
grant wagons  from  the  States.  He  must  be  enlightened 
enough  011  the  general  question  to  save  the  Union  from 
an  irreparable  calamity. 

The  opposition  to  Dr.  Whitman's  purpose  slowly  gave 
way  as  the  mission  conference  realized  that  it  had  before 
it  the  man  who  brought  the  wagon  over  the  mountains 
six  years  before.  At  first  the  wife  yielded,  that  noble 
woman,  who  had  a  broad  American  heroism.  She  finally 
gave  up  her  husband  to  her  country,  much  as  she  had 
given  up  herself  to  Christian  missions  among  its  Indians. 
When  she  assented  to  the  daring  endeavor  of  her  hus- 
band, it  could  not  be  manly  or  Christian  for  others  longer 
to  dissent. 

Now  the  preparations  were  hastened  for  the  depart- 
ure ;  and  in  twenty-four  hours  from  the  enthusiastic 
scenes  of  the  dinner  table  at  Fort  Walla  Walla,  and  the 
rash  assertion  of  the  ardent  priest,  Dr.  Whitman  was  in 
the  saddle,  and  headed  for  Washington.  The  energy 
and  promptness  of  the  man  remind  one  of  Xavier  on  a 
memorable  occasion.  He  was  totally  surprised  by  his 
sudden  appointment,  by  the  Order  of  Jesuits,  to  the 
mission  to  Asia.  When  asked  how  soon  he  would  be 
ready  to  depart  for  his  continental  and  life  work,  he 
answered :  "  To-morrow." 


166  OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

Amos  Lawrence  Lovejoy,  who  had  recently  arrived 
from  the  east  with  the  last  band  of  immigrants,  consented 
to  accompany  the  Doctor  on  his  perilous  journey,  so 
full  of  issues,  and,  as  the  end  proved,  so  full  of  splendid 
ones  for  American  history. 

We  may  easily  fancy  the  unsleeping  mission,  working 
through  twenty-four  hours  to  make  the  outfit  the  safest 
and  lightest  and  most  enduring  possible ;  food,  the  inevit- 
able axe,  arms  for  defense  and  for  game,  medicines  and 
whatnot  for  various  unimaginable  emergencies  —  all 
these  must  be  anticipated,  provided,  and  packed  on  horse 
and  mule.  The  two  horses  for  the  gentlemen,  and  two  or 
three  pack-mules  for  a  guide  and  supplies,  were  in  readi- 
ness before  a  second  sunset,  and  Marcus  Whitman,  with 
his  companion,  took  the  stirrup  for  Washington  and 
Webster,  and  for  a  cavalcade  of  immigrant  wagons  to 
possess  Oregon. 

"  Into  the  valley  of  death  they  rode." 

If  Captain  Grant  and  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  gen- 
erally made  a  mistake  in  letting  Dr.  Whitman  through 
with  his  "  old  wagon  "  six  years  before,  they  made  a 
greater  one  in  letting  him  return  on  horseback  to  the  . 
States.  But  a  man  who  carried  a  permit  from  the  War 
Department,  signed  by  Lewis  Cass,  Secretary,  to  travel, 
reside,  and  work  for  Christianity  in  the  northwest,  could 
not  be  meddled  with  in  safety,  as  if  he  were  a  private 
trapper  from  the  States  around  beaver-dams.  Eleven 
days  out  and  six  hundred  and  forty  miles  brought  him 
face  to  face  with  Captain  Grant  at  Fort  Hall.  The 
party  had  left  Waulatpu,  Oct.  3,  1842.  This  section  of 
their  route  had  been  one  of  great  peril  and  suffering  to 
some  emigrant  and  trading  parties,  notably  that  of  As- 
tor,  under  Wilson  P.  Hunt,  in  1811-12.  The  interview 


WHITMAN'S  RIDE.       .  167 

between  Captain  Grant  and  his  old  friend  the  Doctor 
must  have  been  an  interesting  one  to  witness,  since  each 
was  conscious  of  a  purpose  to  take  and  hold  Oregon,  by 
immigration,  for  the  party  he  represented,  and  since 
both  jointly  knew  how  many  companies  had  been  broken 
up,  or  turned  to  California,  or  forwarded  in  saddles,  after 
being  deprived  of  their  wagons  on  that  familiar  spot. 

For  reasons  already  given  Dr.  Whitman  struck  south- 
erly from  Fort  Hall  to  Taos  and  Santa  Fe.  At  the 
latter  city  he  would  come  on  the  great  Santa  Fe  trail  of 
the  St.  Louis  and  New  Mexican  traders,  and  so  find  his 
way  the  more  easily  to  the  frontier  settlements.  The 
detour,  however,  in  the  sharp  angle  made  at  that  old 
Spanish  capital  would  add  hundreds  of  miles  to  the 
journey,  but  it  was  hoped  it  would  lessen  proportion- 
ately the  hardships  and  dangers  of  the  terrible  expedi- 
tion. 

No  diary  or  narrative  of  the  expedition  was  left  by 
Dr.  Whitman,  but  in  the  five  years  remaining  of  his 
eventful  life  he  gave  here  and  there,  conversationally, 
many  of  the  thrilling  incidents  of  that  wonderful  jour- 
ney, and  these  aid  much  in  drawing  out  and  connecting 
the  thread  of  events.  His  companion  as  far  as  Bent's 
Fort  on  the  Arkansas,  Mr.  Lovejoy,  has  given  a  graphic 
summary  of  the  trip  from  Fort  Hall  to  Fort  Bent. 
Before  introducing  some  passages  from  Mr.  Lovejoy's 
account,  it  may  be  well  to  state  that  the  course  of  the 
expedition  was  due  south  from  Fort  Hall,  and  mainly  in 
the  direction  of  the  present  Utah  Southern  railway,  with 
Great  Salt  Lake  and  Utah  Lake  on  the  right,  passing 
by  the  site,  probably,  of  the  coming  Mormon  city. 
Thence  their  course  was  south  and  cast,  across  Green 
River,  and  then  the  heads  of  Grand  River  m  southwest- 


168  OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

era  Colorado,  then  over  the  upper  branches  of  the  San 
Juan,  now  so  famous  for  its  mines,  and  still  south  and 
east  to  Taos,  and  thence  about  sixty  miles  south  to 
Santa  Fe. 

"  From  Fort  Hall  to  Fort  Uintah  we  met  with  terribly 
severe  weather.  The  deep  snows  caused  us  to  lose  much 
time.  Here  we  took  a  new  guide  for  Fort  Uncompah- 
gre  on  Grand  River,  in  Spanish  country.  Passing  over 
high  mountains,  we  encountered  a  terrible  snow-storm, 
that  compelled  us  to  seek  shelter  in  a  dark  defile ;  and  , 
although  we  made  several  attempts,  we  were  detained 
some  ten  days,  when  we  got  upon  the  mountains,  and 
wandered  for  days,  when  the  guide  declared  he  was 
lost,  and  would  take  us  no  farther.  This  was  a  terrible 
blow  to  the  Doctor. 

"  But  he  determined  not  to  give  it  up,  and  returned  to 
the  Fort  for  another  guide,  I  remaining  with  the  horses, 
feeding  them  on  cotton-wood  bark.  The  seventh  day 
he  returned.  We  reached,  as  our  guide  informed  us, 
Grand  River,  six  hundred  yards  wide,  which  was  frozen 
on  either  side  about  one  third.  The  guide  regarded 
it  as  too  dangerous,  but  the  Doctor,  nothing  daunted, 
was  the  first  to  take  to  the  water.  He  mounted  his 
horse,  and  the  guide  and  myself  pushed  them  off  the  ice 
into  the  boiling,  foaming  stream.  Away  they  went,  com- 
pletely under  water,  horse  and  all,  but  directly  came  up, 
and  after  buffeting  the  waves  and  foaming  current,  he 
made  for  the  ice  on  the  opposite  side,  a  long  way  down 
the  stream, —  leaped  upon  the  ice,  and  soon  had  his 
noble  animal  by  his  side.  The  guide  and  I  forced  in 
the  pack-mules  and  followed  the  Doctor's  example,  and 
were  soon  drying  our  frozen  clothes  by  a  comfortable 
fire. 


WHITMAN'S  RIDE.  169 

"  We  reached  Taos  in  about  thirty  days.  "We  suffered 
from  intense  cold  and  from  want  of  food,  compelled  to 
use  the  flesh  of  dogs,  mules,  or  such  other  animals  as 
came  in  our  reach.  We  remained  about  fifteen  days, 
and  left  for  Bent's  Fort  (via  Santa  Ft')  which  we  reached 
January  3, 1843.  The  Doctor  left  here  on  the  seventh." 

At  this  later  day,  wheu  the  perils  of  winter  travel  in 
those  mountains  are  better  known,  it  seems  more  and 
more  a  marvel  that  this  party  was  ever  heard  from  again. 
When  they  put  out  from  Fort  Uintah  for  Fort  llu- 
compahgre  they  were  most  unfortunate  in  their  guide  as 
well  as  in  the  weather.  It  was  with  difficulty  that  they 
could  travel  through  the  deep  snows  even  when  they 
knew  the  trail,  and  much  time  was  consumed  in  floun- 
dering through  defiles  and  over  craggy  heights.  Then 
that  terrible  storm  struck  them  there  in  the  wild  mount- 
ains, darkening  the  air  almost  to  a  premature  night, 
and  the  ten  days  of  enforced  shelter  and  waiting  in  the 
gorge  left  the  Doctor  with  intense  anxiety  about  what  he 
presumed  was  the  progress  of  the  treaty  at  Washington  on 
the  boundary  question.  If  would  not  be  strange  if  he  saw, 
in  fancy,  the  fatal  signatures  that  would  sacrifice  Oregon. 
Repeated  attempts  were  made  to  force  the  snow  block- 
ade, but  in  vain.  One  attempt,  barely  suggested  in  Mr. 
Lovejoy's  letter,  was  critical,  and  came  near  being  fatal 
to  the  expedition.  The  energy  and  impatience  of  Dr. 
Whitman  had  overruled  the  judgment  of  his  guide,  and 
the  party  attempted  to  escape  their  prison  of  mountains 
and  snow  by  going  over  the  divide.  The  intense  cold 
and  the  mad  storm  made  the  animals  quite  uncontroll- 
able, and  the  freezing,  lonely  squad  of  men  and  beasts 
were  coming  to  be  as  immovable  as  a  group  of  statuary. 
The  guide  confessed  that  he  was  lost  and  gave  up.  Then 


170    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

that  one  man,  like  another  Napoleon  struggling  through. 
Russian  snows  to  recover  from  a  terrible  defeat,  assumed 
the  direction,  and  attempted  to  turn  hack  for  the  camp- 
fire  of  those  wasted  and  impatient  days  —  a  camp  they 
had  so  unwisely  left  that  morning.  But  the  storm  had 
done  its  work,  and  no  trace  of  their  track  could  be  found. 
They  wandered  to  and  fro  as  men  mazed  or  aimless. 
Finally  man  and  beast  became  chilled,  and  hopeless,  and 
stationary,  and  the  snows  were  wrapping  them  in  wind- 
ing-sheets. 

Then  once  and  once  only  in  his  life,  so  far  as.  appears, 
the  Doctor  yielded  to  the  inevitable,  and  gave  up  all  as 
lost.  He  dismounted  and  commended  himself,  his  dis- 
tant wife,  his  missionary  companions  and  work,  and  his 
Oregon,  to  the  Infinite  One,  and  so  awaited  the  silent, 
snowy  burial  of  the  party.  By  and  by  the  guide,  numb 
and  stiff  on  his  mule,  thought  he  saw  significant  move- 
ments in  the  head  and  ears  of  the  animal.  That  strange 
beast  does  sometimes  appear  to  turn  student  and  handle 
a  problem.  At  least,  such  was  the  appearance  in  this 
case,  as  he  turned  his  ears  right  and  left,  and  then  set 
them  with  a  projection  forward,  as  if  he  would  direct 
attention.  To  his  Mexican  rider  all  this  seemed  to 
declare  knowledge  and  convictions.  To  those  familiar 
with  that  old  Spanish  country  and  people  it  will  come 
up,  on  recollection,  that  a  Mexican  and  a  mule  have  a 
good  deal  in  common  which  might  be  called  mutual  un- 
derstanding. Therefore,  the  freezing  and  hopeless  rider 
remarked  :  "  This  mule  will  find  the  camp  if  he  can  live 
to  reach  it."  So  saying,  he  dropped  the  bridle  rein  on 
the  saddle-bow  and  gave  the  animal  his  full  liberty. 

The  stupid  brute,  yet  so  full  of  instinct,  was  master 
of  the  situation.  He  at  once  left  the  stormy  divide, 


WHITMAN'S  RIDE.  171 

turning  a  canon  here  and  a  cliffy  slope  there,  and  still 
downward  plunging  through  snows,  and  sometimes  slid- 
ing over  half  precipices.  He  was  neither  guided  nor 
spurred,  but  had  his  own  will  and  gait,  onward  and 
downward,  till  he  came  to  thick  timber  and  a  dark  ra- 
vine. The  surroundings  slowly  put  on  a  familiar  look 
to  the  party  ;  then  they  snuffed  smoke,  and  soon  the 
mule  stopped  by  the  smouldering  logs  of  the  morning 
camp-fire,  too  rashly  left.  Here  they  warmed,  and  fed, 
and  rested,  yet  other  days. 

But  the  reassured  life  and  returning  spirits  of  the 
Doctor  chafed  over  lost  time,  and  he  was  gone  seven 
days  to  Fort  Uintah  for  a  new  guide.  If  the  reader 
will  pause  long  enough  on  these  pages  to  make  that 
seven  days'  trip  his  own,  in  fancy,  he  will  have  a  better 
measure  of  the  peril  of  it,  and  of  the  man  who  made  it. 
Under  the  new  guide  the  party  arrived  at  Grand 
River,  six  hundred  feet  of  ice  on  each  shore,  with  six 
hundred  of  rapid  water  between  the  two  icy  borders. 
The  Doctor  made  the  first  plunge,  went  under,  came  up, 
steered  across,  and  was  soon  as  thoroughly  encased  in 
ice  as  ever  was  an  old  warrior  in  his  coat  of  mail.  His 
horse  scrambled  on  the  ice  and  to  the  shore  like  a  chased 
deer.  Soon  there  was  the  roaring  camp-fire,  encircled 
by  dripping  men  and  animals.  The  same  man  this  is 
who  made  the  Rocky  Mountains  give  up  to  a  wagon. 

Again,  after  a  hard  day  over  a  bald  prairie  in  a  wild 
storm,  our  company  reached  one  of  the  branches  of  the 
Arkansas.  The  clean  grass,  without  tree,  shrub,  or 
any  fuel,  comes  down  to  the  river  brink,  and  to  the 
smooth,  thin  ice  that  spreads  across  the  stream.  The 
opposite  shore  was  wooded,  and  a  fire  must  be  had,  for 
the  wet  storm  had  passed  by,  and  a  freezing  night  was 


172    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

to  follow.  The  ice  was  a  thin  pretext,  impassable  for  a 
horse,  somewhat  tempting  and  very  doubtful  for  a  man. 
Like  a  during  boy,  when  skating  is  not  yet,  and  the  ice 
will  not  support  him  on  his  feet,  the  Doctor  lay  flat  and 
wriggled  himself  over,  and  then  pushed  back  fuel  and 
axe  before  him.  A  warm  supper  and  a  sweet  sleep  fol- 
lowed. 

Alas,  for  the  axe !  The  helve  has  been  cracked  and 
then  wound  with  raw  hide.  That  night  a  wolf,  for  the 
sake  of  the  skin,  stole  it  from  its  hiding-place  under  the 
edge  of  the  tenting,  and  the  company  never  saw  it  again. 
Nearer  to  Fort  Hall  the  loss  would  probably  have  proved 
very  serious  if  not  fatal  to  the  expedition.  But  they 
soon  came  into  the  vicinity  of  the  lone  cabins  of  daring 
settlers  on  the  extreme  frontier,  and  the  wolfish  act 
proved  only  an  annoyance. 

But  we  are  ahead  of  our  party  on  the  trail.  Santa 
Fe  welcomed  and  refreshed  them  —  that  oldest  city  of 
European  occupation  on  the  continent.  De  Vaca  and 
Coronado,  perhaps  Cortez,  the  Duke  of  Albuquerque, 
Pike,  Kit  Carson,  and  Charles  Bent,  its  first  United 
States  governor,  had  been  there  before  him,  and  Gene- 
ral Kearney  three  years  later,  when  he  took  all  New 
Mexico  for  the  Republic.  Probably  no  public  building 
in  North  America  is  so  old  as  its  adobe  palace,  or  has 
witnessed  so  many  civil  and  bloody  changes.  Its  walls 
could  tell  of  intrigues,  plots,  revolutions,  and  assassi- 
nations, as  none  other  in  the  United  States. 

It  was  a  long  but  easier  journey  to  Bent's  Fort  on  the 
Arkansas.  This  ample  inclosure,  somewhat  fortified 
after  the  rough  needs  of  the  frontier,  has  made  many  a 
weary  traveler  glad  by  its  hearty  and  abundant  hos- 
pitalities. The  iort  was  a  quadrangle,  one  hundred 


WHITMAN'S  RIDE.  173 

feet  on  the  sides.  Its  walls  were  of  adobe,  thirty  feet 
high,  and  its  northeast  and  diagonal  corner  supported 
bastions  arid  a  few  cannon.  The  apartments  were  built 
against  the  walls  on  the  inside,  after  the  Mexican  man- 
ner. In  the  centre  stood  the  robe-press,  where  furs  and 
peltries  were  deposited.  Its  genial  founder,  of  Massa- 
chusetts parentage,  Virginia  birth,  and  Missouri  home, 
pioneer  in  the  New  Mexican  trade,  built  the  post  in 
1829.  In  1880  I  found  it  to  be  a  rude  and  wild  cor- 
ral, deserted  and  decaying. 

The  Republic  is  much  indebted  to  Charles  Bent,  and 
his  associate  brothers  of  the  border,  and  to  St.  Vrain, 
their  partner.  Charles  Bent  was  one  of  the  first  to  in- 
troduce modern  times  into  that  dwarfed  offspring  of 
Spain,  of  the  sixteenth  century.  By  a  caravan  com- 
merce between  St.  Louis  and  the  southwest,  whose  round 
trip  required  a  full  summer,  he  led  that  region  up  to  a 
connection  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  draught-ox 
of  the  Arkansas  and  Rio  Grande  is  indebted  to  him  for 
its  first  iron  shoe.  A  man  of  breadth,  energy,  and  true 
love  of  country,  he  was  wisely  appointed  by  General 
Kearney  as  the  first  Governor  of  New  Mexico  in  1846. 
But  he  was  taken  off  mournfully  by  assassination  at 
Taos,  within  four  months ;  and  after  a  third  interment 
his  remains  rest  under  an  honorable  monument  and  epi- 
taph in  the  Masonic  cemetery  at  Santa  Fe. 

Mr.  Lovejoy,  exhausted  and  broken,  was  left  at  Bent's 
Fort  to  recover  himself,  and  in  the  July  following  he 
joined  the  Doctor  and  his  outgoing  caravan,  above  Lar- 
amie.  The  Doctor  himself  rested  in  the  good  cheer  of 
the  fort,  and  among  fellow  citizens,  for  only  four  days, 
and  on  the  seventh  of  January,  1843,  he  pressed  on  for 
"Washington  and  Webster. 


174    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

On  his  arrival  in  St.  Louis  it  was  my  good  fortune 
that  he  should  be  quartered,  as  a  guest,  under  the  same 
roof,  and  at  the  same  table  with  me.  The  announce- 
ment of  the  man,  in  the  little  city  of  twenty  thousand, 
as  it  was  then,  came  as  a  surprise  and  a  novelty.  In 
those  times  it  was  a  rare  possibility  for  one  to  come  up 
in  midwinter  from  Bent's  Fort  or  Santa  Fe  ;  much  more 
from  Fort  Hall  and  the  Columbia.  The  Rocky  Moun- 
tain men,  trappers,  and  traders,  the  adventurers  in  New 
Mexico,  and  the  contractors  for  our  military  posts,  the 
Indian  men  laying  up  vast  fortunes,  half  from  the  gov- 
ernment and  half  from  the  poor  Indian  —  gathered  about 
Dr.  Whitman  for  fresh  news  from  those  places  of  inter- 
est. Those  who  had  friends  on  the  plains,  or  in  the  moun- 
tains, or  Spanish  territory,  sought  opportunities  to  ply 
him  with  questions*  For  none  had  come  over  since  the 
river  closed,  or  crossed  the  frontier  inward  since  the  win- 
ter set  in.  What  about  furs  and  peltries  ?  How  many 
buffalo  robes  would  come  down  by  June  on  the  spring 
rise  of  the  Missouri  ?  Were  Indian  goods  at  the  posts 
in  flush,  or  fair,  or  scant  supply  ?  What  tribes  were  on 
the  war-path  ?  What  were  the  chances  of  breaking 
Indian  treaties,  and  for  removals  from  old  reservations  ? 
Who  seemed  to  have  the  inside  favor  with  the  Indian 
agents  ?  What  American  fur-traders  had  the  Hudson 
Bay  Company  recently  driven  to  the  wall  ?  What 
could  he  say  of  the  last  emigrant  company  for  Oregon 
in  which  one  Amos  Lawrence  Lovejoy  went  out  ? 
What  had  become  of  so  and  so,  who  were  in  previous 
companies  that  broke  up  at  Fort  Hall  ? 

Many  of  their  questions  were  as  fresh  and  lively  then 
as  they  are  to-day  concerning  the  Indian  country ;  and 
as  heavy  fortunes  lay  back  of  them,  at  least  it  was  hoped 


WHITMANS  RIDE.  175 

so.  Our  Indian  field,  however,  has  changed  somewhat 
as  to  product,  and  now  yields  less  fur  and  more  green- 
backs, owing  to  the  modern  use  of  different  traps,  and 
gins,  and  snares,  and  to  a  change  of  places  in  setting 
them  —  more  on  the  Potomac  and  less  on  the  Columbia 
waters. 

But  the  Doctor  was  in  great  haste,  and  could  not 
delay  to  talk  of  beaver,  and  Indian  goods,  and  wars,  and 
reservations,  and  treaties.  He  had  questions  and  not 
answers.  Was  the  Ashburton  Treaty  concluded  ?  Did 
it  cover  the  northwest?  Where,  and  what,  and  whose 
did  it  leave  Oregon  ?  He  was  soon  answered.  Webster 
and  Ashburton  had  signed  that  treaty  on  the  ninth  of 
August  preceding,  on  the  twenty-sixth  the  Senate  had 
ratified  it,  and  on  the  tenth  of  November,  President 
Tyler  had  proclaimed  it  as  the  law  of  the  land.  While 
the  Doctor,  therefore,  was  floundering  in  the  snows,  or 
hunting  a  lost  camp-fire,  or  exchanging  guides,  or  swim- 
ming frozen  rivers,  somewhere  on  the  trail  of  Forts 
Wintee  and  Uncompahgre,  the  Oregon  question  was 
settled  for  the  present  by  postponement. 

Then,  instantly,  he  had  other  questions  for  his  St. 
Louis  visitors.  Was  the  Oregon  question  under  discus- 
sion in  Congress  ?  What  opinions,  projects,  or  bills, 
were  being  urged  in  Senate  or  House  ?  Would  any- 
thing important  be  settled  before  the  approaching  ad- 
journment on  the  fourth  of  March  ?  That  might  be  a 
critical  and  even  a  closing  day  for  great  American  inter- 
ests on  the  northwest  coast.  Could  he  reach  Washing- 
ton before  the  adjournment?  He  must  leave  at  once, 
and  he  went. 

Marcus  Whitman  once  seen,  and  in  our  family  circle, 
telling  of  his  one  business  —  he  had  but  one  —  was  a 


176    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

man  not  to  be  forgotten  by  the  writer.  He  was  of  me- 
dium height,  more  compact  than  spare,  a  stout  shoulder, 
and  large  head  not  much  above  it,  covered  with  stiff 
iron-gray  hair,  while  his  face  carried  all  the  moustache 
and  whiskers  that  four  months  had  been  able  to  put  on 
it.  He  carried  himself  awkwardly,  though  perhaps  cour- 
teously enough  for  trappers,  Indians,  mules,  and  griz- 
zlies, his  principal  company  for  six  years.  He  seemed 
built  as  a  man  for  whom  more  stock  had  been  furnished 
than  worked  in  symmetrically  and  gracefully.  There 
was  nothing  peculiarly  quick  in  his  motion  or  speech, 
and  no  trace  of  a  fanatic  ;  but  under  control  of  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  -his  business,  and  with  deep,  ardent  con- 
victions about  it,  he  was  a  profound  enthusiast.  A  will- 
ful resolution  and  a  tenacious  earnestness  would  impress 
you  as  marking  the  man. 

His  dress  would  now  appear  much  more  peculiar  than 
in  those  days  and  in  that  city.  For  St.  Louis  was  then 
no  stranger  to  blanket  Indians,  and  Yellowstone  trap- 
pers, in  buckskin  and  buffalo.  The  Doctor  was  in  coarse 
fur  garments  and  vesting,  and  buckskin  breeches.  He 
wore  a  buffalo  coat,  with  a  head-hood  for  emergencies  in 
taking  a  storm,  or  a  bivouac  nap.  What  with  heavy 
fur  leggings  and  boot-moccasins,  his  legs  filled  up  well 
his  Mexican  stirrups.  If  memory  is  not  at  fault  with 
me,  his  entire  dress,  when  on  the  street,  did  not  show 
one  square  inch  of  woven  fabric. 

With  all  this  warmth  and  almost  burden  of  skin  and 
fur  clothing,  he  bore  the  marks  of  the  irresistible  cold 
and  merciless  storms  of  his  journey.  His  fingers,  ears, 
nose,  and  feet  had  been  frost-bitten,  and  were  giving 
him  much  trouble.  "When  he  came  to  the  extreme 
east,  to  speak  officially  of  his  mission  among  the  Indians, 


WHITMAN'S  RIDE.  177 

it  is  recorded  that  some  sensitive  gentlemen  suggested 
that  a  certain  suit  of  black  —  and  a  little  worn  — might 
be  more  becoming.  That  was  the  time  when  some 
American  Geographical  Society  was  needed  to  receive 
him  with  publicity  and  formality  in  his  full  Rocky 
Mountain  suit,  and  afterward  decorate  him  with  the 
badges  and  insignia  of  an  eminent  explorer  and  discov- 
erer. 

Are  not  we  Americans  slow  to  discover  historic  step- 
ping-stones till  they  become  foot-worn  ? 

Dr.  Whitman,  in  St.  Louis,  was  midway  between  Ore- 
gon and  Washington,  and  he  carried  business  of  mighty 
import,  that  must  not  be  delayed  by  private  interests 
and  courtesies.  In  the  wilds  and  storms  of  the  moun- 
tains he  had  fed  on  mules  and  dogs,  yet  now  sumptuous 
and  complimentary  dinners  had  no  attractions  for  him. 
lie  was  happy  to  meet  men  of  the  army,  of  commerce, 
and  of  fur,  but  his  urgent  business  was  to  see  Daniel 
Webster.  A  few  days  among  the  elegances  of  cheery 
homes,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  genial  courtesies,  might 
make  him  too  late  at  the  seat  of  government,  and  render 
worthless  his  four  months  of  hardships  and  perils  on  the 
long  Oregon  trail.  Four  months  in  the  saddle,  and 
"  The  fate  of  a  nation  was  riding  that  night." 

So  far  the  horse  had  carried  Oregon  ;  now  the  Doctor 
must  see  it  speedily  and  safely  to  the  end  of  the  four 
thousand  miles.  Exchanging  saddle  for  stage — for 
the  river  was  closed  by  ice  —  he  pressed  on,  and  arrived 
at  Washington  March  third,  just  five  months  from  the 
Columbia  to  the  Potomac. 

Our  records  are  not  without  illustrations  of   heroic 
action  of  this  kind.     The  midnight  ride  of  Paul  Revere, 
made  classic  by  one  of  our  sweetest  poets,  constituted  an 
12 


178    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

epoch  in  the  life  of  the  young  Republic.  Lieutenant 
Gillespie,  going  by  Vera  Cruz,  the  city  of  Mexico  and 
California  coast  to  Monterey,  there  took  saddle  to  over- 
haul Lieutenant  Fremont,  in  Oregon,  with  dispatches 
from  Washington.  It  was  quite  after  the  old  Roman 
order,  that  he  look  to  it  that  the  American  Republic 
receive  no  damage  in  California.  Sheridan  made  his 
marvelous  ride  to  Winchester  and  turned  a  defeat  and 
rout  into  a  victory.  There  have  been  eminent  express 
rides,  full  of  import  to  families  and  states ;  these  have 
carried  messages  for  war  and  for  peace,  for  trade  and 
towering  ambition.  It  would  be  difficult,  however,  to 
find  one  that  for  distance,  time,  heroic  daring,  peril, 
suffering,  and  magnificent  consequences,  could  equal 
Whitman's  Ride. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

OREGON  NOT  IN  THE  TREATY  OF  WEBSTER  AND 
ASHBURTON. 

DR.  WHITMAN  arrived  in  Washington  too  late,  and 
yet  not  too  late.  When  he  left  the  Columbia  for  the 
Potomac,  his  latest  information  from  the  States,  brought 
over  by  his  returning  companion,  Mr.  Lovejoy,  was  that 
a  treaty  was  under  negotiation  between  Mr.  Webster, 
the  Secretary  of  State,  and  Lord  Ashburton,  English 
envoy,  to  settle  the  boundary  question  between  the  two 
nations,  and  it  was  supposed  that  Oregon  was  included. 
To  have  the  northwestern  boundary  question  covered 
and  settled  in  that  treaty,  the  Doctor  was  too  late  ;  for 
while  he  was  yet  not  forty  days  on  his  national  and  con- 
tinental journey,  the  treaty  was  proclaimed  as  the  law 
of  the  land.  Mr.  Webster  and  Lord  Ashburton  had 
completed  and  signed  it  nearly  two  months  before  he 
started,  and  Oregon  was  left  out.  But  he  was  not  too 
late  to  furnish  new  and  much  needed  information,  to  ex- 
pose scheming,  to  show  the  accessibility  of  Oregon  to 
the  old  east,  to  draw  from  his  own  residence  and  travel 
and  study  there,  for  six  years,  leading  facts  concerning 
its  natural  and  national  worth,  and,  by  all  this,  to  stay 
a  damaging  foreclosure  of  the  question,  secure  final 
equity  and  save  national  honor  —  for  all  this  he  was  just 
in  time.  Let  us  see  how  the  case  stands  when  this  Pa- 
cific man,  in  fur  and  buckskin,  weather-beaten  and  frost- 
bitten, enters  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  State. 


180    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

The  boundary  between  the  United  States  and  the 
British  Possessions,  described  by  the  treaty  of  peace, 
1783,  was  either  unfortunately  worded  or  most  unfor- 
tunately handled.  In  interpreting  phrases  in  the  treaty 
such  embarrassing  questions  as  these  were  raised :  Which 
river  is  the  St.  Croix  ?  Where  is  the  north-west  angle 
of  Nova  Scotia  ?  What  are  the  highlands  between  this 
angle  and  the  northwest  head  of  the  Connecticut  River  ? 
Which  stream  is  the  northwest  head  of  that  river  ? 
May  the  rivers  emptying  into  the  Bay  of  Fuudy  be  said 
to  fall  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean  ?  A  joint  commission  of 
1794  finally  agreed  on  what  is  the  St.  Croix,  and  fixed 
a  monument  at  its  source.  For  forty-eight  years  the 
boundary  question  lingered  before  joint  commissions, 
and  in  delays  such  as  only  diplomacy  can  weave,  and 
nothing  more  was  settled.  In  1839  new  impetus  was 
given  to  the  subject,  and  Mr.  Webster  was  urged  as 
special  minister  to  England  to  hasten  affairs.  He  drew 
up  a  memorandum  of  plan  for  settlement,  which  was 
highly  approved  by  President  Van  Buren  and  others. 
But  the  proposed  plan  was  not  adopted,  the  envoy  was 
not  sent,  and  fruitless  negotiations  went  on.  Mr.  Web- 
ster meanwhile  spent  a  few  months  in  a  private  and 
social  way  in  England,  and  was  much  consulted  on  the 
boundary  question. 

In  1841  Mr.  Webster  passed  from  the  Senate  to  the 
Cabinet  of  President  Harrison,  as  Secretary  of  State. 
After  the  painfully  early  death  of  the  President,  Web- 
ster continued  in  the  Cabinet  when  the  Vice-President, 
Mr.  Tyler,  succeeded  to  the  presidency.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  this  year  1841  Mr.  Webster  informed  Mr.  Fox, 
the  English  minister  at  Washington,  that  he  was  ready 
to  attempt  the  settlement  of  the  boundary  question. 


OREGON  NOT  IN  THE  TREATY.       181 

The  antecedents  of  negotiation  were  not  very  encourag- 
ing, and  it  required  some  confidence  in  a  plan,  and  some 
boldness,  to  renew  the  efforts.  For  it  was  now  fifty- 
eight  years  since  the  treaty  of  peace  had  stipulated  a 
boundary,  and  so  far  only  the  St.  Croix  River  had  been 
identified,  and  a  monument  set  at  its  source.  When  in 
1803  a  joint  commission  was  just  being  completed  to  run 
the  line  the  Louisiana  Purchase  was  made,  which  would 
carry  United  States  territory  beyond  the  Mississippi,  up 
somewhere  to  British  territory,  and  therefore,  for  pru- 
dential reasons,  the  United  States  delayed  action.  In 
1814,  by  the  Treaty  of  Ghent,  another  joint  boundary 
commission  was  secured,  but  could  not  agree,  and  it  set- 
tled nothing.  Then  the  question  had  rest,  practically, 
till  1827,  when,  through  a  convention,  it  was  referred  to 
the  King  of  the  Netherlands  as  arbitrator,  but  his  decision 
was  rejected  by  both  parties  in  1831.  During  his  double 
term  of  office  President  Jackson  made  five  separate  ef- 
forts to  adjust  the  boundary,  and  as  many  failures.  His 
successor,  Mr.  Van  Buren,  in  his  first  message,  spoke  of 
"  abortive  efforts  made  by  the  executive  for  a  period  of 
more  than  half  a  century,"  and" closed  his  administration, 
leaving  the  question  involved  in  greater  "  intricacies 
and  complexities  and  perplexities,"  among  which  was 
the  famous  Aroostook  war. 

In  view  of  this  disheartening  history  of  the  question, 
Secretary  Webster  proposed  to  undertake  it  anew,  and 
on  the  fourth  of  April,  1842,  Lord  Ashburton  arrived  at 
Washington,  as  envoy,  with  full  powers  to  negotiate 
with  him.  Mr.  Webster  had  not  only  the  United  States 
to  satisfy  in  this  delicate  business,  and  now  sensitive  by 
the  irritations  of  more  than  half  a  century,  but  Maine, 
Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  and  New 


182     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

York  had  state  interests  involved,  and  were  alive  to 
the  integrity  of  their  territory,  and  to  their  honor.  The 
two  ministers  signed  the  treaty  August  ninth,  1842 ;  the 
Senate  ratified  it  on  the  twenty-sixth  ;  Lord  Ashburton 
sailed  with  the  treaty  for  home  October  thirteenth ;  the 
treaty  was  ratified  by  the  Queen,  returned  from  Eng- 
land, and  proclaimed  November  tenth,  1842. 

The  long  standing  of  the  question,  the  perplexities 
which  had  accumulated  around  it,  the  length  of  line  set- 
tled, the  magnitude  of  territory,  and  other  issues  involved, 
and  the  prompt  action  in  four  brief  months,  make  the 
act  a  remarkable  one  in  the  history  of  diplomacy. 
When  Dr.  Whitman  was  thirty-eight  days  out  from  the 
Columbia,  and  somewhere  in  the  snows,  between  Fort 
Hall  and  Taos,  the  treaty  became  the  law  of  the  land. 
But  it  contained  no  reference  to  Oregon.  Neither  the 
treaty  nor  the  official  correspondence  alludes  to  Oregon. 
It  determined  the  boundary,  "  beginning  at  the  Monu- 
ment at  the  source  of  the  river  St.  Croix,"  and  ending 
at  the  Rocky  Mountains  on  the  forty-ninth  parallel. 

In  his  annual  message  of  December,  following  the 
proclamation  of  the  treaty,  President  Tyler  thus  refers 
to  the  Oregon  interests,  and  shows  why  they  were  put 
by  for  the  time.  "  It  became  evident,  at  an  early  hour 
of  the  late  negotiations,  that  any  attempt  for  the  time 
being  satisfactorily  to  determine  those  rights  would 
lead  to  a  protracted  discussion,  which  might  embrace  in 
its  failure  other  more  pressing  matters ;  and  the  ex- 
ecutive did  not  regard  it  as  proper  to  waive  all  the  ad- 
vantages of  an  honorable  adjustment  of  other  difficulties 
of  great  magnitude  and  importance,  because  this,  not  so 
immediately  pressing,  stood  in  the  way." 

Mr.  Webster  regarded  the  negotiation  of  this  treaty 


OREGON  NOT  IN  THE  TREATY. 

as  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  important  acts  of  his 
eventful  life.  For  this  diplomatic  success  he  was  ex- 
posed to  some  criticism,  grave  and  petty.  Maine  was  a 
party  to  the  negotiations,  by  her  commissioners,  and 
endorsed  the  result,  yet  some  of  her  worthy  citizens  felt 
that  her  rights  had  -not  been  well  maintained,  and  that 
portions  of  her  territory  had  been  sacrificed  to  peace 
and  compromise,  though  probably  nine  tenths  of  her 
people  to-day  approve  the  treaty.  The  total  area  in 
dispute  in  Maine  was  twelve  thousand  and  twenty-seven 
acres.  The  west  was  disappointed  that  the  Oregon 
question  was  not  included  and  settled.  A  little  sectional 
jealousy  was  stirred. 

During  the  three  or  four  following  years,  and  till  the 
settlement  of  Oregon  affairs  in  1846,  the  eastern  boun- 
dary treaty  was  frequently  a  subject  of  adverse  criticism 
in  Congress.  As  Webster  himself  said,  it  was  made 
"the  subject  of  disparaging,  disapproving,  sometimes 
contumelious  remarks."  Perhaps  this  should  not  sur- 
prise us.  There  were  men  of  lofty  and  worthy  ambi- 
tions in  Congress  and  out  of  it,  but  only  one  could  carry 
off  the  honor  of  this  great  achievement.  Then  there 
were  men  who  could  not  presume  to  pass  around  our 
continent,  and  examine  with  a  broad  and  international 
view  the  boundary  line  at  the  Atlantic  end  and  at  the 
Pacific  end.  At  that  time,  and  more  so  now,  our  coun- 
try was  quite  large  for  some  men. 

At  one  time  the  affair  ran  close  to  bloody  conflict  in 
the  Aroostook  war,  but  General  Scott  went  down  and 
stayed  the  rising  passions,  as  afterward  and  for  a  simi- 
lar purpose  he  visited  the  coasts  of  Oregon.  Probably 
it  was  this  crisis,  as  well  as  some  others,  that  Webster 
covered  in  a  remark  to  a  leading  merchant  who  had 


184     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 
congratulated  him  on  the  successful  work  :  "  There  have 

O 

been  periods  when  I  could  have  kindled  a  war,  but,  sir, 
I  remembered  that  I  was  negotiating  for  a  Christian 
country  with  a  Christian  country,  and  that  we  were  all 
living  in  the  nineteenth  century  of  the  Christian  era. 
My  duty,  sir,  was  clear  and  plain." 

The  mayor  of  Philadelphia  recognized  the  same  fact 
gracefully,  when  introducing  Mr.  Webster  at  a  dinner 
which  the  city  had  given  him :  "  In  seasons  of  danger 
he  has  been  to  us  a  living  comforter ;  and  more  than 
once  has  restored  this  nation  to  serenity,  security,  and 
prosperity."  This  was  soon  after  the  popular  frenzy  of 
"fifty-four  forty,  or  fight,"  had  calmed  down  on  the 
parallel  of  forty-nine  —  Webster's  original  line.  Other 
critical  issues  and  irritating  questions  which  hot  blood 
could  have  turned  into  war  came  up  and  went  into 
peaceable  settlement,  notably  the  Canadian  burning  of 
the  Caroline,  the  right  of  search  for  English  citizens  on 
American  vessels,  and  cooperation  for  the  suppression 
of  the  slave-trade  on  the  African  coasts. 

And  the  more  is  the  wonder  that  he  peacefully  car- 
ried the  great  issue  through  such  grave  danger  of  war, 
since  those  were  days  of  hot  blood  and  foolishly  high 
spirit.  About  this  time,  John  Quincy  Adams  said,  re- 
ferring to  Wise,  who  shot  Cilley  in  a  duel :  "  Four  or 
five  years  ago,  there  came  to  this  house  a  man  with  his 
hands  and  face  dripping  with  the  blood  of  murder,  the 
blotches  of  which  are  yet  hanging  upon  him."  At  the 
spring  horse-races,  in  1842,  and  about  the  days  of  the 
opening  negotiations  between  Ashburton  and  Webster, 
the  horse  of  Stanley  of  North  Carolina  jostled  this  same 
Wise  in  his  saddle,  and  the  fiery  man  resented  the  act 
with  his  cane.  A  duel  was  stayed  only  by  the  police, 


OREGON  NOT  IN  THE  TREATY.       185 

and  the  only  physical  harm  was  to  the  left  eye  of  Rev- 
erdy  Johnson,  which  a  rebounding  ball  destroyed,  while 
Johnson  was  teaching  Stanley  how  to  kill  Wise.  The 
suppression  of  the  war  spirit,  in  such  times,  was  a  sub- 
lime conquest. 

These  were  the  relations  of  Mr.  Webster  in  the  popu- 
lar mind,  when  Doctor  Whitman,  rough  in  fur  and 
buckskin,  entered  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  State. 
Wearied  as  Mr.  Webster  may  well  have  been  in  set- 
tling so  much  of  a  difficulty  which  many  others  had 
given  half  a  century  to,  and  failed  ;  ungenerously  criti- 
cised by  a  few,  as  having  yielded  all  to  England,  while 
Lord  Ashburton  suffered  a  similar  condemnation  for 
having  yielded  all  to  the  United  States,  we  may  well 
suppose  that  Dr.  Whitman  would  not  find  him  enthu- 
siastic over  the  northwestern  boundary  question.  In- 
deed, the  two  negotiators  had  paused  at  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  because,  as  the  President  stated,  any  at- 
tempts to  carry  the  line  farther  would  not  offer  hope- 
ful results.  It  does  not  appear,  moreover,  that  the 
Secretary  was  under  any  executive  instructions  to  go 
into  the  Pacific  side  of  the  business,  and  certainly  Lord 
Ashburton  was  not. 

A  great  disappointment  was  felt  in  Oregon  that  it 
was  not  provided  for  in  the  treaty,  as  the  people  there, 
without  full  reason,  had  presumed  it  would  be,  and  the 
heroic  endeavor  of  Dr.  Whitman  had  seemed  to  them 
to  guarantee  it.  The  mistakes  appear  to  have  origi- 
nated in  Oregon,  where  expectations  were  highest,  and 
information  most  scanty,  and  disappointment  was  the 
keenest. 

I  have  devoted  so  much  care  to  the  analysis  and  cor- 
rection of  this  error,  not  only  to  relieve  the  fame  of 


186      OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

our  great  diplomat  from  an  unfortunate  and  of  course 
undesigned  shadow,  but  also  to  set  forth  in  its  historic, 
and  therefore  noblest  light,  the  achievement  of  Dr. 
Whitman.  Oregon  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  conti- 
nent, with  formidable  wilderness  and  deserts  between, 
and  information  from  Washington  traveled  slowly  and 
scantily.  The  inner  history  of  the  Ashburton  and 
Webster  negotiations  rested  loug  among  the  semi-secrets 
of  the  Department  of  State.  Webster  himself  says: 
"  The  papers  accompanying  the  treaty  were  voluminous. 
Their  publication  was  long  delayed,  waiting  for  the  ex- 
change of  ratifications  ;  and,  when  finally  published,  they 
were  not  distributed  to  any  great  extent,  or  in  large 
numbers.  The  treaty,  meantime,  got  before  the  public 
surreptitiously,  and,  with  the  documents,  came  out  by 
piecemeal.  We  know  that  it  is  unhappily  true  that, 
away  from  the  large  commercial  cities  of  the  Atlantic 
coast,  there  are  few  of  the  public  prints  of  the  country 
which  publish  official  papers  on  such  an  occasion  at 
length." 

The  pressure  of  Oregon  into  the  Ashburton  Treaty 
would  probably  have  done  one  of  three  things,  prevented 
the  treaty  altogether,  excluded  the  United  States  from 
Oregon,  or  produced  a  war.  Delay  and  apparent  defeat 
were  the  basis  of  our  real  success,  and  the  great  work 
of  Marcus  Whitman,  by  his  timely  presence  at  Wash- 
ington, was  in  making  that  success  sure. 

The  meeting  of  two  such  ministers  of  state  for  such 
high  ends,  and  with  such  high  resolve,  is  a  scene  good 
to  be  looked  at  by  nations,  and  cabinets,  and  philanthro- 
pists. The  scene  is  as  much  above  the  struggle  of  two 
armies,  or  navies,  as  reason  and  moral  right  are  above 
muscle  and  steel.  Some  delays  consumed  three  months 


OREGON  NOT  IN  THE  TREATY.  187 

among  more  local  commissioners,  and  on  questions  of 
geography,  compass,  and  chain.  But,  as  men  who  are 
conscious  of  right,  and  of  having  the  end  in  their  own 
keeping,  can  afford  to  wait,  so  the  high  contracting  par- 
ties waited,  in  this  case,  till  the  time  was  ripe,  and  the 
end  came  in  an  obvious  fitness  of  things.  The  result 
in  the  Ashburton  Treaty  gained  the  general  assent. 
Some  Englishmen  called  the  treaty  the  "  Ashburton 
Capitulation,"  and  some  Americans  spoke  quite  as  nar- 
rowly of  it  from  the  United  States  side. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  Doctor  Whitman  was  dis- 
satisfied with  the  policy  which  resulted  in  the  Ashbur- 
ton Treaty,  as  evidently  the  best  possible  in  the  circum- 
stances. Nor  is  there  reliable  information  to  warrant 
the  assumption  that  he  was  annoyed  by  any  opinions  at- 
tributed to  the  Secretary  that  Oregon  was  "  worthless 
territory,"  and  should  be  traded  off  for  cod  -  fisheries. 
All  traditions  to  that  effect  have  started  in  the  assump- 
tion that  on  his  arrival  in  Washington  the  Ashburton 
Treaty  was  still  pending,  whereas  it  had  been  settled  for 
six  mouths.  But  in  a  later  chapter  we  will  discuss  this 
fully. 

The  delay,  therefore,  constituted  Whitman's  oppor- 
tunity, and  enabled  him  to  turn  his  perilous  journey  into 
the  salvation  of  his  beloved  northwest.  If  anyone  could 
be  intelligently  thankful  that  the  Oregon  question  had 
not  been  pressed  into  the  treaty,  that  man  must  have 
been  Marcus  Whitman. 

Meanwhile  the  bow  of  Ulysses  was  relaxed.  For  the 
very  day  when  the  Senate  ratified  the  treaty,  thirty-nine 
to  nine,  we  find  Webster  thus  writing  to  his  Marshfield 
farmer :  "  I  am  against  filling  the  floor  of  the  barn  with 
salt  hay.  It  spoils  the  looks  of  things,  besides  being  in 


188      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

the  way.  You  will  do  better  to  make  a  third  cap,  large, 
and  place  it  in  a  convenient  spot  near  the  piggery,  as  I 
am  not  at  all  certain  but  what  you  and  I  shall  make  a 
barn  the  last  two  weeks  in  September  and  the  first  two 
in  October." 

If  Dr.  Whitman  could  have  created  all  the  circum- 
stances and  ordained  his  own  time,  his  arrival  in  Wash- 
ington could  not  have  been  more  apt  for  seizing  the  con- 
dition of  things  and  saving  Oregon.  Its  destiny  he  had 
brought  over  on  his  own  saddle,  and  now  held  it  in  his 
solitary  hand.  His  knowledge  of  the  case  was  original, 
personal,  and  experimental,  and  at  Washington  he  made 
it  declarative.  With  his  understanding  of  the  whole 
affair,  and  with  his  practical  sense  and  energy,  he  was 
anxious  to  venture  the  issue  for  Oregon  on  an  experi- 
ment, and  the  Cabinet  were  willing  he  should  do  it. 
Fremont  was  promised  as  an  escort  for  the  returning 
caravan  that  was  to  constitute  the  experiment.  The 
settlement,  therefore,  of  the  Oregon  question,  and  the 
crowning  of  that  wonderful  ride,  waited  on  that  emi- 
grant cavalcade  that  was  about  to  move  off  into  the 
wild  west  from  Westport,  Missouri, 


CHAPTER  XX. 

IS    OREGON    WORTH    SAVING? 

WHEN  Dr.  Whitman  arrived  in  Washington  it  was  a 
common  question  there,  and  so  poorly  understood  as  to 
be  variously  answered,  whether  Oregon  were  worth  sav- 
ing. It  was  several  mouths  distant  from  our  national 
capital,  and  had  been  but  little  examined  and  reported 
by  Americans,  and  occupied  by  settlers  only  about 
twelve  months.  The  information  obtained  from  explor- 
ers, traders,  and  trappers  from  the  United  States  had 
been  slight,  mostly  indefinite,  and  not  very  tempting  to 
emigration.  The  popular  and  prevailing  impression 
was  that  Oregon  was  wild,  rough,  and  inhospitable,  and 
not  inviting  to  immigrants  and  specially  to  family  life. 
It  was  thought  to  be  no  place  for  white  women  and  their 
children,  nor  even  for  business  men  in  the  ordinary  pur- 
. suits  of  agriculture,  mechanics,  trade,  and  commerce. 
Even  if  these  things  were  otherwise,  and  the  whole  re- 
gion were  tempting  to  American  life,  it  was  not  accessi- 
ble by  land ;  and  to  double  Cape  Horn  in  a  voyage  of 
weary  mouths  was  out  of  the  question.  Prior  to  the 
arrival  of  the  Doctor  this  ignorance  made  it  impos- 
sible to  settle  the  question  in  dispute.  The  emigrant 
scheme  contained  the  solution  of  doubts. 

Was  Oregon  worth  having  by  the  United  States  ? 
Doubtful,  as  the  case  then  stood  in  evidence.  The 
northwest  was  opened  and  made  known  to  the  United 


190      OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

States  by  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  as  it  became  in  the 
course  of  their  progressive  trade  the  natural  extension 
of  their  magnificent  game  preserve.  Their  policy,  as  a 
grand  mercantile  monopoly,  was  to  keep  it  in  their  own 
hands.  As  already  stated,  that  broad  Scotchman  and  fur- 
trader,  Alexander  Mackenzie,  had  gone  across  —  first  of 
white  men  —  to  the  northwest  Pacific,  and  painted  his 
mark  there  upon  rock.  Thus  his  discoveries  by  land 
closed  in  with  those  of  Captain  Cook  by  sea,  made  fif- 
teen years  before,  and  the  English  arm  was  stretched 
across  from  sea  to  sea.  A  little  later,  1806,  Simon 
Frazer  made  a  settlement  on  a  river  there,  with  his  name. 
"  The  first  made  on  the  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
by  civilized  man."  * 

The  publication  of  Cook's  voyages,  1784-5,  introduced 
many  rival  and  adventurous  traders  into  those  north- 
western seas,  and  from  that  time  the  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany urged,  energetically,  their  monopoly  there,  as  we 
have  before  seen.  The  American  purchase  and  the  ex- 
ploration by  Lewis  and  Clark  were  not  followed  by  col- 
onies from  the  States  for  many  years.  The  first  inde- 
pendent emigrating  party  of  men,  women,  and  children 
—  one  hundred  and  twenty  —  to  that  country  was  led 
over  in  1842  by  Elijah  White,  Indian  agent  for  the  gov- 
ernment in  the  northwest.  This  was  the  company  that 
informed  Dr.  Whitman  of  the  negotiations  for  the  Ash- 
burton  Treaty,  and  hastened  him  on  his  ride.2  Prior  to 
this  a  few  missionary  bands  had  gone  over,  but  their  in- 
formation was  mostly  concerning  their  work.  The  va- 

1  The  Oregon  Question  Examined.    By  Travers  Twiss,  Professor  of 
Political  Economy,  Oxford,  1846,  p.  13. 

2  A  Concise  View  of  Oregon  Territory.    By  Elijah  White,  Indian 
Agent  for  Oregon  Territory,  Washington,  1846,  pp.  1,  65. 


IS  OREGON  WORTH  SAVING?  191 

rious  American'trading  parties  had  gained  much  knowl- 
edge of  that  country  in  the  line  of  their  business,  but 
they  were  not  accessible  as  an  organized  fraternity,  and 
so  could  not  impart  much  valuable  information.  No 
doubt  a  watchful  reporter,  hanging  about  St.  Louis  from 
the  return  of  Lewis  and  Clark  in  1806,  to  Whitman's 
arrival  there  in  1843,  could  have  picked  up  many  valu- 
able facts  concerning  that  vast  northwest.  Old  traders 
and  trappers,  and  Mississippi  boatmen  of  the  Mike  Fink 
stamp,  a  species  long  extinct,  must  have  made  many  a 
saloon,  and  verandah,  and  shanty  on  Water  Street  and 
the  Levee  fascinating  with  their  stories.  The  quarters 
of  the  American  Fur  Company  must  have  been  full  of 
profitable  information,  but  little  literary  ambition  was 
there,  and  only  financial  facts  went  into  their  huge  folios. 
We  would  sacrifice  a  portly  alcove  to-day  for  a  few 
hours  with  such  pioneer  traders  as  the  Sublettes,  and 
Davenport,  and  Campbell,  and  the  Bents,  and  Choteau, 
and  St.  Vrain,  and  others.  One  may  be  pardoned  for 
coveting  what  those  men  carried  with  them  to  the  grave. 
An  incident,  with  headline  only,  may  hint  at  our  loss. 
About  Christmas,  1830,  William  Sublette  had  cached 
his  furs  on  the  Bighorn  River,  and  having  joined  the 
camp  of  his  brother  Milton,  crossed  over  inlo  the  valley 
of  Wind  River  to  winter.  When  he  had  well  quartered 
his  men,  he  put  out  for  St.  Louis,  with  Black  Har- 
ris, traveling  on  snow-shoes,  with  a  train  of  pack  dogs. 
What  a  story  to  be  lost ! 

At  the  time  of  the  interview  between  Whitman  and 
Webster  the  most  of  the  information  received  in  the 
States  from  the  northwest  had  of  necessity,  therefore, 
come  in  through  English  channels,  and  was  moulded  to 
Hudson  Bay  interests.  While  that  country  lay  as  an 


192    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

obscure  right  between  the  two  nations,  and  the  Com- 
pany saw  an  advance  opening  for  their  trade,  it  was 
quite  natural  that  they  should  diminish  temptations  to 
visit  it,  and  weave  obstacles  between  it  and  a  rival  on 
the  border.  This  they  did  to  a  successful  extent  up 
to  the  time  when  Whitman  arrived  on  the  Potomac. 
They  had  made  it  quite  obvious  to  the  uninformed,  says 
Gray,  "  that  the  whole  country  was  of  little  value  to  any 
one.  It  would  scarcely  support  the  few  Indians,  much 
less  a  large  population  of  settlers." 

English  volumes  of  travel  and  scholarly  Review  arti- 
cles were  teaching  the  same  delusion  abroad.  So  the 
"Edinburgh  Review"  said:  "  Only  a  very  small  pro- 
portion of  the  laud  is  capable  of  cultivation."  "  West 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains  the  desert  extends  from  the 
Mexican  (Californian)  border  to  the  Columbia,"  and  it 
endeavored  to  show  that  the  country  east  of  the  moun- 
tains was  "  incapable,  probably  forever,  of  fixed  settle- 
ments," where  now  are  Kansas,  Nebraska,  and  Dakota. 
The  "  British  and  Foreign  Review "  preached  to  the 
same  application  and  conclusion  :  "  Upon  the  whole, 
therefore,  the  Oregon  terrftory  holds  out  no  great  prom- 
ise as  an  agricultural  field."  The  "  London  Examiner  " 
was  quite  pronounced,  if  not  petulant,  that  the  ignorant 
Americans  did  not  give  up  a  country  equal  in  area  to 
England  eight  times :  "  The  whole  territory  in  dispute 
is  not  worth  twenty  thousand  pounds  to  either  power."  1 

This  worthless  region,  as  they  wished  to  show  it,  they 
nevertheless  occupied  eastward  from  the  Pacific  to  the 
heads  of  the  Missouri  and  Mississippi.  When  Lieutenant 

1  Vol.  Ixxxii.  p.  240.  Also  July,  1843,  p.  184.  British  and  For- 
eign Review,  January,  1844,  p.  21.  London  Examiner,  quoted  in 
Webster's  Works,  i. :  Introd.  cxlix. 


IH  OREGON  WORTH  SAVING  t  193 

Pike,  in  his  expedition  of  1805,  found  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  flying  the  English  flag  within  our  territory,  and 
required  it  to  be  hauled  down,  he  wrote  to  Captain  Mc- 
Gillis  :  u  I  find  your  establishments  at  every  suitable  place 
along  the  whole  extent  of  the  south  side  of  Lake  Super- 
ior, to  its  head,  from  thence  to  the  sources  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, down  Red  River,  and  even  extending  to  the  cen- 
tre of  our  newly  acquired  territory  of  Louisiana." 

Their  trappers  and  traders,  in  a  gossipy  way,  were 
undervaluing  Oregon,  as  the  stately  quarterlies  were 
doing  in  a  more  dignified  manner.  This  depreciating 
view  of  that  country  came  to  possess  our  own  literature 
and  popular  speech.  Captain  William  Sturgis,  who  had 
trafficked  on  the  northwest  coast  and  at  the  English  posts 
there,  uses  this  language  in  a  lecture  before  the  Mercan- 
tile Library  Association  of  Boston,  two  years  even  after 
the  arrival  of  Whitman  :  "  Rather  than  have  new  states 
formed  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains,  to  be  added  to  our 
present  Union,  it  would  be  a  lesser  evil,  as  far  as  that 
Union  is  concerned,  if  the  unoccupied  portion  of  the 
Oregon  territory  should  sink  into  Symme's  Hole,  leaving 
the  western  base  of  those  mountains  and  the  borders  of 
the  Pacific  Ocean  one  and  the  same." 1 

A  similar  view  of  Oregon's  value  probably  led  Benton 
to  make  that  remarkable  utterance,  in  1825  :  "  The  ridge 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains  may  be  named  without  offence 
as  presenting  a  convenient  natural  and  everlasting  bound- 
ary. Along  the  back  of  this  ridge  the  western  limits  of 
this  Republic  should  be  drawn,  and  the  statue  of  the  fa- 
bled god  Terminus  should  be  raised  upon  its  highest 
peak,  never  Jo  be  thrown  down."  As  late  as  1844  Mr. 
Winthrop,  calling  attention  in  the  Senate  to  this  senti- 
ment, remarked :  "  It  was  well  said." 
1  Boston,  1845,  p.  24. 


194   OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

The  same  article  from  which  we  have  quoted  in  the 
"  Edinburgh  Review "  thinks  'that  the  American  colo- 
nists in  Oregon  have  been  "  misled  by  the  representa- 
tions of  the  climate  and  soil  of  Oregon,  which  for  party 
purposes  have  been  spread  through  the  United  States." 
Then  the  "  Review  "  becomes  prophetic  :  "  It  seems  prob- 
able that,  in  a  few  years,  all  that  formerly  gave  life  to 
the  country,  both  the  hunter  and  his  prey,  will  become 
extinct,  and  that  their  place  will  be  supplied  by  a  thin 
white  and  half-breed  population,  scattered  along  the  few 
fertile  valleys,  supported  by  pasture  instead  of  the  chase, 
and  gradually  degenerating  into  barbarism,  far  more  of- 
fensive than  the  backwoodsman."  This  defamation  of 
Oregon  is  naturally  followed  by  the  English  writer  with 
the  declaration  that  "  No  nation  now  possesses  any  title, 
perfect  or  imperfect,  by  discovery,  by  settlement,  by 
treaty,  or  by  prescription." 

The  Ashburton  Treaty  had  been  then  ratified,  Oregon 
was  omitted,  and  the  next  step  must  be  anticipated.  Evi- 
dently the  "  Review"  was  making  and  exporting  opinions 
for  American  use,  and  forty  years  ago  it  was  no  inferior 
power  in  determining  the  affairs  of  this  country.  It  is 
right  to  add,  however,  that  twenty-four  years  afterward, 
the  "  Westminster  Review  "  had  the  candor  to  confess  : 
"  In  spite  of  the  disparaging  estimates  of  Mr.  Edward 
Ellice  and  Sir  George  Simpson,  and  the  unfavorable 
impression  of  the  territory,  which  has  been  so  industri- 
ously propagated  by  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  we  are 
compelled  to  believe,  on  overwhelming  testimony,  that 
the  Fur  Company  possess,  or  claim  to  possess,  a  grand 
estate,  larger  than  most  kingdoms,  and  a  great  portion 
of  it  of  unequalled  natural  resources." 

Mr.  McDuffie,  in  a  speech  in  the  Senate,  reflected, 


IS  OREGON  WORTH  SAVIN Gt  195 

roughly  and  crudely,  the  English  and  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany's teachings  on  the  subject :  — 

"  What  is  the  character  of  this  country  ?  Why,  as  I 
understand  it,  that  seven  hundred  miles  this  side  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  is  uninhabitable,  where  rain  scarcely 
ever  falls  —  a  barren  and  sandy  soil  .  .  .  mountains 
totally  impassable,  except  in  certain  parts,  where  there 
were  gaps  or  depressions,  to  be  reached  only  by  going 
some  hundreds  of  miles  out  of  the  direct  course.  Well, 
now,  what  are  we  going  to  do  in  such  a  case  as  this  ?  How 
are  you  going  to  apply  steam  ?  Have  you  made  any- 
thing like  an  estimate  of  the  cost  of  a  railroad  running 
from  here  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  ?  Why  the 
wealth  of  the  Indies  would  be  insufficient.  You  would 
have  to  tunnel  through  mountains  five  or  six  hundred 
miles  in  extent.  ...  Of  what  use  will  this  be  for  agri- 
cultural purposes  ?  I  would  not,  for  that  purpose,  give 
a  pinch  of  snuff  for  the  whole  territory.  ...  I  wish  it 
was  an  impassable  barrier  to  secure  us  against  the  intru- 
sion of  others.  ...  If  there  was  an  embankment  of 
even  five  feet  to  be  removed,  I  would  not  consent  to  ex- 
pend five  dollars  to  remove  that  embankment,  to  enable 
our  population  to  go  there.  ...  I  thank  God  for  his 
mercy  in  placing  the  Rocky  Mountains  there." 

This  speech  in  the  Senate  was  delivered  on  the  25th 
of  January,  1843.  An  interesting  coincidence  comes 
in  here.  On  the  7th  of  this  month  Whitman  had  left 
Bent's  Fort  for  St.  Louis  and  Washington  ;  on  the 
13th  had  encountered  that  terrible  and  memorable  u  cold 
wave  "  of  the  interior,  and  in  his  lonely  saddle  was  press- 
ing on  to  the  States,  with  a  bundle  of  facts  that  would 
reduce  so  many  speeches,  like  that  of  McDuffie,  and  so 
many  English  Review  articles,  to  deceptive  rhetoric. 


196    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

Indeed,  it  was  unfortunate  for  the  American  interests, 
that  outside,  foreign,  and  rival  parties  furnished  the  basis 
and  tone  of  public  opinion  on  the  question.  The  Great 
American  Desert  was  made  a  standing  intimidation  to 
the  emigrant.  "  From  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  to 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  United  States  territory,"  says 
the  "  Westminster  Review,"  "  consists  of  an  arid  tract 
extending  south  nearly  to  Texas,  which  has  been  called 
the  Great  American  Desert."  "  The  caravan  of  emi- 
grants who  undertake  the  passage,"  says  Mr.  Edward  J. 
Wallace,  "  take  provisions  for  six  mouths,  and  many  of 
them  die  of  starvation  on  the  way."  1 

That  "  Desert "  still  forms  quite,  an  African  feature  in 
the  visions  of  some  eastern  people,  who  have  read  only 
''Pike's  Expedition,"  and  Long's,  and  Wilson  P.  Hunt's, 
and  who  remember  faithfully  Morse's  and  Cumming's 
geographies  of  their  childhood.  What  a  dreary  Arabian 
centre  that  Great  American  Desert  gave  then  to  the 
map  of  the  United  States !  Missouri,  and  Kansas,  and 
Nebraska,  and  Colorado,  and  Dakota,  and  other  splendid 
farming  regions  are  now  good  substitutes  for  that  Zahara. 

But  unfavorable  impressions  of  the  west,  this  side  and 
beyond  the  mountains,  were  not  due  to  the  English 
alone.  The  east  was  jealous  of  the  west,  and  conse- 
quently negligent  of  it.  A  question  in  McDuffie's  speech 
is  a  hint  of  this.  "  Do  you  think  your  honest  farmers  in 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  or  even  Ohio  or  Missouri, 
would  abandon  their  farms  to  go  upon  any  such  enter- 
prise as  this  ?  "  And  Mr.  Winthrop  is  appalled  by  the 
same  desert.  "  Whether  that  spirit  [of  emigration],  in- 
domitable as  it  is  in  an  ordinary  encounter,  would  not 

1  Edward  J.  Wallace,  Barrister-at-Law.  The  Oregon  Question  Ex- 
amined, London,  1846,  p.  29. 


IS  OREGON  WORTH  SAVING?  197 

be  found  stumbling  upon  the  dark  mountains,  or  faint- 
ing in  the  dreary  valleys,  or  quenched  beneath  the  per- 
petual suows,  which  nature  has  opposed  to  the  passage 
to  this  disputed  territory,  remains  to  be  seen."  In 
1846  this  veteran  statesman  is  still  speaking  of  "a 
wagon-road  eighteen  hundred  miles  in  length  through 
an  arid  and  mountainous  region  "  to  the  shores  of  the 
Pacific. 

The  fact  is  constantly  meeting  us,  in  this  historical  in- 
quiry concerning  the  origin,  growth,  and  acquisition  of 
our  Oregon,  that  the  vastness  of  our  territory,  the  great 
distance  of  fascinating  portions  of  it  from  the  old  east, 
and  the  long  trails  of  our  daring  emigrants,  made  it  ex- 
ceedingly difficult  for  the  government  to  appreciate  it 
and  provide  for  it. 

The  time  is  not  far  past  when  a  tour  to  Illinois  was 
more  tedious  and  even  dangerous  than  one  to-day  to 
China.  Lieutenant  Pike  was  not  the  only  one  who  feared 
the  ruin  of  the  Republic  by  the  thin  diffusion  of  its  pop- 
ulation by  emigration.1  Similar  lack  of  foresight  and 
knowledge,  and  practical,  though  unconscious  indiffer- 
ence to  our  magnificent  western  growth,  was  shown  when 
efforts  were  made  to  withhold  all  public  lands  from  sale 
and  settlement  after  the  Louisiana  purchase,  beyond  the 
Mississippi,  till  wild  lands  east  of  that  river  were  taken 
up.  And  it  is  not  to  be  concealed  that  the  east  bore  it 
ill  that  the  old  centres  of  wealth  and  voting  and  general 
control  were  going  "  out  west." 

It  is  still  difficult  to  persuade  benevolent  capitalists 
and  benevolent  organizations  that  tneir  most  hopeful 
fields  are  frontier  fields.  The  handful  of  grain,  whose 

1  Explorations  on  the  Sources  of  the  Mississippi,  Missouri,  Platte 
and  Arkansas,  1806,  Appendix  II. 


198    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

fruit  is  to  shake  like  Lebanon,  is  prairie  corn,  and  Pa- 
cific wheat.  The  old  fields  east  of  the  Ohio,  and  spe- 
cially east  of  the  Hudson,  have  done  raising  these  large 
crops  of  prophecy.  The  benevolence  is  reverent  and 
filial  and  lovely  that  still  decorates  the  old  altars  of  re- 
ligion, and  wreathes  the  monuments  of  the  fathers,  and 
adds  new  turrets  and  alcoves  and  elms  to  the  classic 
shades  and  walks  of  our  younger  feet.  But  if,  by  and 
by,  we  would  rest  in  shrines,  to  which  the  godly  and 
the  scholarly  will  make  pilgrimage,  and  as  reverently, 
and  filially,  and  lovingly  as  we  do  now  to  those  of  the 
fathers,  we  must  put  our  legacies,  and  sympathies,  and 
labors,  as  they  did,  into  a  growing  frontier,  and  make 
the  wilderness  bud  and  blossom. 

Prior  to  1843  discussions  on  Oregon  were  not  infre- 
quent in  Congress,  but  no  legislation  was  had  anticipat- 
ing its  settlement  and  protection.  The  first  movement 
of  this  nature  was  in  a  resolution  introduced  into  the 
House,  in  1820,  by  Mr.  Floyd  of  Virginia,  but  only  de- 
bate followed.  In  1843  a  bill  by  Mr.  Lewis  of  Mis- 
souri passed  the  Senate,  making  some  legal  provisions 
for  Oregon,  but  it  was  lost  in  the  House  under  an  ad- 
verse report  made  by  Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams.  In 
those  times  western  enterprise,  in  the  form  of  Fur  Com- 
panies, did  the  most  to  compel  attention  to  that  neglected 
portion  of  our  domain,  notably,  Ashley's,  1823,  Jackson 
and  Sublette's,  1827,  Pattie's,  1830,  Bonneville's,  1832, 
and  some  few  others. 

But  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  did  all  they  could  to 
bring  failure  upon  these,  and  they  were  generally  suc- 
cessful. Governor  Pelley  of  that  Company  well  says  in 
1838 :  "  We  have  compelled  the  American  adventurers 
to  withdraw  from  the  contest,  and  are  now  pressing  the 


75  OREGON  WORTH  SAVING?  199 

Kussian  Fur  Company  so  closely,  that  we  hope,  at  no 
very  distant  period,  to  confine  them  to  the  trade  of  their 
own  proper  territory."  The  Hudson  Bay  Company 
finally  leased  from  the  Russians  that  long,  narrow  strip 
of  Alaska  between  British  Columbia  and  the  ocean,  in 
no  place  more  than  thirty  miles  wide.  The  rental  paid 
was  two  thousand  land  otter  skins  a  year.  The  Amer- 
ican adventurers  generally  returned  to  the  States  dissat- 
isfied, and  they  charged  much  to  climate,  long  journeys, 
and  desert  regions,  which  was  really  due  to  the  harsh 
monopoly  of  English  rivals. 

All  this  tended  to  defame  and  depreciate  Oregon  in 
the  popular  mind,  and  congressional  delays  and  inef- 
ficient action  were  the  natural  consequence.  Feeble 
and  not  very  successful  missionary  efforts  in  1834  and 
the  years  following  kept  a  kind  of  life  in  the  Oregon 
question,  and,  uniting  with  the  trading  interest,  brought 
it  down  to  the  times  of  the  Ashburton  Treaty.  To  one 
who  has  traced  these  facts,  it  will  not  seem  strange  that 
it  did  not  gain  recognition  in  that  treaty.  It  had  not 
definiteness  or  vitality  enough  in  the  American  mind, 
which  lay  in  ignorance  of  its  true  merits,  and  it  could 
not  have  been  handled  as  a  whole  and  with  interna- 
tional equity. 

Indeed,  when  Dr.  Whitman  arrived  many  still  held 
to  the  idea  expressed,  in  his  early  career,  by  General 
Jackson  to  President  Monroe :  "  Concentrate  our  popu- 
lation, confine  our  frontier  to  proper  limits,  until  our 
country,  in  those  limits,  is  filled  with  a  dense  popula- 
tion. It  is  the  denseness  of  our  population  that  gives 
strength  and  security  to  our  frontier." 

We  have  noticed  Mr.  Benton's  rhetorical  erection  of 
the  god  Terminus  on  the  Rocky  Mountains.  In  a  speech 


200    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

made  two  years  even  after  the  arrival  and  the  alarming 
information  of  Dr.  Whitman,  Mr.  Winthrop  said  :  "  Arc 
our  western  brethren  straightened  for  elbow-room,  or 
likely  to  1>Q  for  a  thousand  years  ?  Have  they  not  too 
much  land  for  their  own  advantage  already  ?  .  .  .  I 
doubt  whether  the  west  has  a  particle  of  real  interest  in 
the  possession  of  Oregon.  .  .  .  The  west  has  no  interest, 
the  country  has  no  interest,  in  extending  our  territorial 
possessions."  Mr.  Webster  renews  the  declaration  of 
General  Jackson  and  Mr.  Winthrop,  when  opposing,  in 
1845,  the  admission  of  Texas  :  "  The  government  is  very 
likely  to  be  endangered,  in  my  opinion,  by  a  further  en- 
largement of  the  territorial  surface,  already  so  vast,  over 
which  it  is  extended." 

Another  question,  traditional  from  colonial  times,  was 
floating  about  Washington  and  affected  the  other,  whether 
Oregon  was  worth  having,  when  Dr.  Whitman  appeared. 
It  was  whether  smaller  domains  and  several  independent 
governments  were  not  preferable  to  one  total  and  inclu- 
sive Union.  When  the  colonies  were  feeling  their  way 
toward  independence,  newspapers,  pamphlets,  and  con- 
ventions handled  this  question,  and  among  other  plans 
a  northern  and  middle  and  southern  confederation  or 
separate  government  was  proposed.  Sectional  feeling 
and  separation  were  high.  After  independence  and  the 
Union  were  made  sure,  Washington  discovered  strong  ten- 
dencies to  a  separate  government  in  the  southwest :  "  The 
western  states  hang  upon  a  pivot.  The  touch  of  a  feather 
would  turn  them  any  way."  Jefferson  carried  along  to- 
ward Whitman's  day  the  colonial  notion  of  separate  gov- 
ernments for  the  Americans,  and  was  therefore  disap- 
pointed by  the  failure  of  the  Astor  colony  and  plan.  "  I 
considered  as  a  great  public  acquisition,"  he  wrote  to  Mr. 


IS  OREGON  WORTH  SAVING t  201 

Astor  after  the  failure,  "  the  commencement  01  a  settle- 
ment on  that  point  of  the  western  coast  of  America,  and 
looked  forward  with  gratification  to  the  time  when  its 
descendants  should  have  spread  themselves  through  the 
whole  length  of  that  coast,  covering  it  with  free  and  in- 

o  o 

dependent  Americans,  unconnected  with  us  but  by  the  ties 
of  blood  and  interest,  and  enjoying,  like  us,  the  right  of 
self-government."  .  .  .  "The  germ  of  a  great,  free, 
and  independent  empire  on  that  side  of  our  continent." 

In  1829  an  organization  was  formed  in  Boston  to  pro- 
mote the  American  occupation  of  Oregon,  and  it  asked 
of  Congress  a  colonial  government,  or  an  independent 
one,  as  that  body  might  advise. 

The  venerable  Gallatin,  in  his  very  able  letters  on 
the  Oregon  question,  remarks :  "  The  inhabitants  of  the 
country,  from  whatever  quarter  they  may  have  come,  will 
be,  of  right,  as  well  as  in  fact,  the  sole  legitimate  owners 
of  Oregon.  Whenever  sufficiently  numerous  they  will 
decide  whether  it  suits  them  best  to  be  an  independent 
nation,  or  an  integral  part  of  our  great  Republic.  .  .  . 
Viewed  as  an  abstract  proposition,  Mr.  Jefferson's  opin- 
ion appears  correct,  that  it  will  be  best  for  both  the 
Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  American  nations,  whilst  enter- 
taining the  most  friendly  relations,  to  remain  independ- 
ent, rather  than  to  be  united  under  the  same  govern- 
ment." 1 

Such  were  the  antecedents  and  surroundings  of  the 
Oregon  question  when  Dr.  Whitman  arrived  in  Wash- 
ington, and  neither  Oregon,  nor  Webster,  nor  Whitman 
can  be  made  to  stand  in  a  true  light  if  placed  outside 
this  historical  framework.  Without  making  an  extensive 
study  of  the  case,  the  special  friends  of  Oregon  have  felt 
i  Letter  V. 


202      OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

that  it  was  at  that  time  neglected,  and  some  of  the  friends 
of  Dr.  Whitman  have  felt  that  his  perilous  mission  did 
not  gain  a  just  attention  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of 
State.  The  facts  in  the  case,  so  far  as  discovered,  do 
not  show  disappointment  by  the  one  or  neglect  by  the 
other.  The  Doctor  seems  to  have  gained  all  he  asked, 
and  the  Secretary  to  have  kept  at  the  very  front  of  cir- 
cumstances ;  and  the  result,  which  is  the  logical  con- 
clusion of  events,  was  the  acquisition  of  Oregon  to  the 
full  extent  of  any  government  claim  by  the  United 
States. 

.  It  is  reported  as  a  coincidence  of  weight  that  Sir 
George  Simpson,  Governor  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany, visited  Washington  during  the  critical  days  we 
are  now  considering.  Sir  George  had  been  the  head  of 
the  Company  in  America  for  many  years,  and  had  been 
resident  in  the  country  much  longer.  Probably  no  liv- 
ing man  could  bring  to  the  investigation  of  the  question 
so  much  knowledge  of  the  natural  resources  of  Oregon 
and  its  value  for  some  national  domain.  Certainly  no 
one  had  a  better  understanding  of  the  interests,  plans, 
and  secret  policies  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  con- 
cerning that  region.  It  was  a  coincidence,  therefore, 
that  Governor  Simpson  should  start  on  an  inland  tour 
from  Montreal  to  the  heads  and  valley  and  mouth  of 
the  Columbia,  make  a  double  excursion  up  and  down 
the  Pacific  coast,  and  survey  carefully  the  Russian, 
English,  American,  and  Mexican  possessions  there, 
while  the  Oregon  interest  was  coming  to  the  front. 
Without  commission  on  the  business,  yet  full  of  infor- 
mation, as  no  other  man  was,  and  then  as  fond  of 
frontier  life  and  forest  sports  as  Webster  himself,  he 
could  meet  the  Secretary  of  State  informally  and  so- 


IS  OREGON  WORTH  SAVING?  203 

cially  and  frequently  as  a  kind  of  untitled  tete-a-tete  plen- 
ipotentiary. For  practical  results,  though  uncommis- 
sioned, it  was  as  when  one  is  omitted  or  absent  at  the 
court  dinner,  but  lunches  privately  with  the  king.  No 
doubt  each  used  the  opportunity  informally,  for  his  gov- 
ernment, but  for  the  English  side  it  was  like  putting 
forward  the  best  Hudson  Bay  expert,  while  the  most  of 
the  evidence  on  the  American  side  came  by  way  of 
Great  Britain.  But  with  no  correspondence  between 
the  two  gentlemen , extant,  and  no  records  of  visits 
preserved,  so  far  as  appears,  it  would  be  quite  unwise  to 
base  any  assertions  of  things  done  or  proposed,  on  con- 
jectures, inferences,  traditions,  and  unadmitted  reporters. 
Very  likely  the  Governor,  at  those  splendid  dinners, 
said  some  things  to  the  Secretary  which  he  afterward 
published  in  his  "  Narrative  of  a  Journey  Round  the 
World."  In  passing  the  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the  Co- 
lumbia he  nervously  describes  the  "spot  already  pre- 
eminent, among  congenial  terrors  of  much  older  fame,  for 
destruction  of  property  and  loss  of  life."  How  could 
the  United  States  wish  to  own  that  dangerous  piece  of 
property  ?  But  the  English  were  willing  to  take  it ! 
He  is  confident  "  the  United  States  will  never  possess 
more  than  a  nominal  jurisdiction,  nor  long  possess  even 
that,  on  the  west  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains."  He 
even  challenges  Congress  to  impose  the  Atlantic  tariffs 
on  the  ports  of  the  Pacific.  And,  giving  full  scope  to 
England  and  Russia  to  control  the  destinies  and  dimen- 
sions of  other  peoples,  he  assumes  to  "  confine  every 
other  nation  within  the  scanty  limits  of  its  proper  local- 
ity." Haughtily  said  by  one  who  headed  a  land  monop- 
oly one  third  larger  than  all  Europe.  But  it  does  not 
read  so  frightful  and  dwarfing  to  us  now,  when  the 


204     OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

United  States  have  land  enough  on  which  to  set  down 
all  England  seventy-eight  times,  with  clippings  that 
would  comfortably  seat  Scotland,  while  we  own  six 
thousand  miles  of  Pacific  coast  against  the  English  four 

o  o 

hundred  and  fifty. 

The  Governor  grows  bold  in  his  book  prophecies : 
"  San  Francisco  will,  to  a  moral  certainty,  sooner  or 
later  fall  into  the  possession  of  the  Americans  —  the 
only  possible  mode  of  preventing  such  a  result  being  the 
previous  occupation  of  the  post  on  the  part  of  Great 
Britain.  .  .  .  The  only  doubt  is  whether  California  is 
to  fall  to  the  British  or  to  the  Americans."  In  1839, 
Captain  Sir  Edward  Belcher  had  surveyed  the  Califor- 
nia coasts  to  San  Francisco  and  below,  and  the  English 
government  was  informed,  as  if  in  anticipation,  of  the 
value  and  desirableness  of  that  then  almost  Mexican 
waif. 

So  the  Governor  is  chatty,  and  prophetic,  and  diplo- 
matic, in  his  narrative  of  two  volumes.1  Whether  he 
said  these  things,  more  or  less,  to  Mr.  Webster,  in  some 
most  genial  interviews,  does  not  appear.  But,  indeed, 
it  wa«  a  singular  coincidence  if  Sir  George  Simpson, 
Governor  of  the  Pludson  Bay  Company,  was  visiting  in 
Washington  just  at  that  time.  And  it  was  another  as 
singular  coincidence,  that  at  the  same  time  Dr.  Marcus 
Whitman  should  enter  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  State, 
and  with  wonderful  intelligence  be  able  to  speak  to  the 
question  :  Is  Oregon  worth  saving  ? 

1  Narrative  of  a  Journey  Round  the  World.  By  Sir  George 
Simpson,  Governor-in-Chief  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  in  North 
America.  In  1841-1842.  London,  1847. 


CHAPTER  XXL 

TITLES   TO   OREGON. 

THE  question  of  threescore  years  begins  to  show  an 
end.  The  discussion,  at  home  and  abroad,  is  narrowing 
to  an  examination  of  titles,  of  discoveries,  and  settle- 
ments. At  this  later  stage,  therefore,  in  our  study  of 
the  Oregon  question,  a  statement  of  the  respective  claims 
of  the  two  parties  will  not  only  be  necessary,  but  it  can 
now  be  made  more  briefly  and  intelligibly  than  it  could 
have  been  at  an  earlier  period. 

The  extent  of  the  original  Oregon  of  controversy  is 
•worthy  of  careful  thought.  By  common  consent  the 
forty-second  degree  of  latitude  was  the  boundary  be- 
tween Oregon  and  California.  The  Pacific  coast  of 
Oregon  ran  from  the  forty-second  degree  to  fifty-four 
forty,  north.  From  that  northern  point  on  the  coast  it 
ran  due  east  to  the  heights  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and 
followed  that  divide  down  to  the  forty-second  degree 
again.  The  territory  so  inclosed  was  the  original,  not 
the  final,  Oregon,  extending  about  seven  hundred  and 
sixty  miles  north  and  south,  by  about  six  hundred  and 
fifty  east  and  west.  This  area  is  equal  to  Massachusetts 
sixty-three  times,  and  to  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  four 
times. 

In  1790,  Spain  claimed  for  herself,  both  from  dis- 
covery and  settlement,  even  farther  north  than  this,  and 
denied  the  right  of  any  other  nation  to  make  establish- 


206     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

merits  there.  In  this  year  Great  Britain  made  issue 
with  Spain  on  these  assumptions,  the  result  of  which 
was  the  Nootka  Convention,  so  called.  It  is  not  expe- 
dient to  go  here  into  details  as  to  the  claims  of  the  two 
nations  in  that  quarter  of  the  world.  They  are  absurd 
enough  on  either  side,  and  after  an  illustration  for  each 
party,  we  will  skip  two  hundred  years  and  more,  and 
come  to  results. 

When  Balboa  discovered  the  Pacific  Ocean,  at  the 
Isthmus,  in  1513,  he  took  possession  of  it  for  his  king 
as  a  private  sea ;  and  its  navigation,  trade,  fisheries,  and 
adjoining  country,  he  vowed  to  defend  for  the  king  and 
crown  of  Spain.  A  half  century  or  so  later,  1579,  Sir 
Francis  Drake,  buccaneer,  filibuster,  and  marauder- 
general  —  honorable  and  honored  in  the  times  and  court 
of  Elizabeth  —  accepted  for  his  queen,  and  from  the 
natives  of  that  northwest  coast,  coronation,  sceptre,  and 
sovereignty.  The  poor  creatures,  scantily  clothed  in  a 
few  skins  besides  their  own,  went  through  the  ceremo- 
nial farce ;  and  the  pillar  that  the  admiral  erected  in 
commemoration  of  this  transfer  of  dominion  to  his  queen 
was  a  monument  of  folly.  The  two  absurdities  are  well 
matched  together  by  the  Spaniard  and  the  Englishman. 

On  occasional  visits  by  vessels,  temporary  trade  with 
the  natives,  some  fishing,  and  a  few  shanties,  the  two 
rival  nations  built  claims  to  sovereignty.  The  English 
claimed  "an  indisputable  right  to  the  enjoyment  of  a 
free  and  uninterrupted  navigation,  commerce,  and  fishing, 
and  to  the  possession  of  such  establishments  as  they 
should  form,  with  the  consent  of  the  natives  of  the 
country,  not  previously  occupied  by  any  of  the  Euro- 
pean nations."  While  doing  this,  the  English  vessels 
and  property  were  seized  and  confiscated  by  the  Spanish. 


TITLES  TO  OREGON.  207 

Hence  negotiations  opened  that  resulted  in  the  Nootka 
Convention  of  1790. 

By  this  convention  or  treaty  Great  Britain  gained  the 
right  to  navigate,  trade,  and  u'sh,  on  the  northwest 
coast,  and  make  temporary  settlements  for  these  pur- 
poses. Spain  conceded  only  this,  and  retained  her  sov- 
ereignty or  right  of  eminent  domain  over  the  coasts, 
islands,  and  land  inward.  The  times  in  Europe  were 
then  anxious ;  revolutions  threatened,  and  the  era  of 
Napoleon  was  just  opening  ;  the  ministry  of  Pitt  eased 
off  from  its  hard  demands  on  Spain,  and  the  secret  and 
adroit  management  of  Mirabeau  made  the  negotiations 
almost  or  quite  barren  for  the  old  rival  of  France.  The 
convention  does  not  show  that  Spain  conceded  any  of  the 
sovereignty  which  she  claimed  over  the  land.  The  con- 
ference and  the  treaty  were  commercial  and  not  terri- 
torial. England  sought  a  division  of  the  territory,  but  it 
was  not  gained.  While  the  English  could  not  "  navigate 
or  carry  on  their  fishing  in  the  said  seas  within  the  space 
of  ten  leagues  from  any  part  of  the  coast  occupied  by 
Spain,"  the  settlements  where  the  English  could  trade 
were  made  common  to  Spain  also.  Indeed  when  the 
convention  was  discussed  in  Parliament  it  was  asserted 
that  England  had  lost  more  than  she  had  gained,  while 
Spain  was  left  unrestricted  and  unmolested  in  her  old 
assumptions  and  assertions  of  sovereignty.  I  dwell 
the  more  minutely  on  this  treaty,  because  afterward  the 
United  States  became  full  owner,  by  purchase,  of  all  that 
Spain  owned,  and  had  left  to  herself,  by  the  Nootka  ar- 
rangement, of  the  country  north  of  the  forty-second 
degree. 

It  should  here  be  added  that  the  war  between  Eng- 
land aud  Spain  in  1796  abrogated  this  treaty,  according 


208    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

to  the  common  theory,  as  stated  by  Lord  Bathurst, 
"  that  all  treaties  are  put  an  end  to  by  a  subsequent 
war  between  the  same  parties."  This  would  carry  back 
the  extent  of  the  gain  of  the  United  States  by  the 
Louisiana  purchase  to  all  that  Spain  owned  north  of 
forty-two  prior  to  the  Nootka  Convention. 

Spain  and  Great  Britain  entered  into  a  new  commer- 
cial treaty  in  1814,  in  which  the  Nootka  Treaty  was  re- 
affirmed. This  was  a  practical  concession  by  P^ngland  to 
Spain  of  all  the  territorial  sovereignty  which  Spain  had 
claimed  on  the  northwest  coast,  north  of  the  parallel  of 
forty-two.  In  order  to  understand  with  defiuiteness  the 
American  claim  to  Oregon  by  the  Louisiana  Purchase, 
several  particulars  should  be  here  carefully  noted. 
Prior  to  the  Nootka  Convention  Spain  claimed  the 
sovereignty  of  the  Oregon  coasts.  As  the  Nootka  Con- 
vention makes  no  reference  to  this  claim,  it  is  silently 
conceded  to  Spain.  In  1796  that  convention  is  abro- 
gated by  war  between  the  two  parties,  and  Spain  is  re- 
instated in  all  her  ancient  claims,  commercial  and  terri- 
torial. In  this  condition  of  things  Spain  reconveys  to 
France  the  ancient  Louisiana,  which  was  assumed  to 
embrace  the  Oregon  territory,  and  soon  after  France 
conveyed  it  to  the  United  States  by  the  same  limits  by 
which  she  had  received  it  from  Spain.  In  1814,  Great 
Britain  reaffirms  the  Nootka  Treaty,  and  so  renews  the 
concession  to  Spain  of  her  territorial  claims  on  that  coast. 
It  would  appear,  therefore,  that  the  United  States  de- 
rived from  Spain  through  France  a  title  to  Oregon 
which,  as  late  as  1814,  Great  Britain  had  conceded. 
When  we  come  to  examine  the  Florida  Treaty  we  shall 
see  how  this  Spanish  title  is  confirmed  and  supplemented 
for  the  United  States, 


TITLES  TO  OREGON.-  209 

Some  good  authorities,  even  Bancroft,  have  expressed 
doubts  whether  the  northern  boundary  of  the  ancient 
Louisiana  was  fixed  west  of  the  Luke  of  the  Woods  and 
on  the  forty-ninth  parallel,  and  if  not,  whether  any  ter- 
ritory west  of  the  mountains  was  conveyed  back  and 
forth  as  we  have  stated.  The  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  1713, 
provided  for  determining  "  the  limits  which  are  to  be 
fixed  between  the  said  Bay  of  Hudson  and  the  places  ap- 
pertaining to  the  French." l  Mr.  Madison  says :  "  There 
is  reason  to  believe  that  the  boundary  between  Louis- 
iana and  the  British  territories  north  of  it  was  actually 
fixed  by  commissioners  appointed  under  the  Treaty  of 
Utrecht,  and  that  the  boundary  was  to  run  from  the 
Lake  of  the  Woods  westwardly  on  latitude  forty-nine ; " 
and  he  says  the  boundary  was  run  "  along  that  line  in- 
definitely." Mr.  Monroe,  United  States  minister  to 
England,  writes,  1804,  to  Lord  Harrowby,  the  British 
Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs :  "  Commissioners  were 
appointed  by  each  power,  who  executed  the  stipulations 
of  the  treaty  in  establishing  the  boundary  proposed  by 
it.  They  fixed  the  northern  boundary  of  Canada  and 
Louisiana,"  etc.2  Mr.  Greenhow  in  his  "  History  of 
Oregon,"  expresses  doubts  of  this,  however,  and  sets 
them  forth  in  an  elaborate  note. 

The  obscurity  of  this  fact  would  be  unfortunate,  since 
the  territory  so  defined  on  its  north  and  west  was  ceded 
by  France  to  Spain  in  1762,  and  by  Spain  to  France  in 
1800,  and  by  France  to  the  United  States  in  1803.  But 
a  late  and  highest  authority,  the  honorable  Caleb  Gush- 
ing, in  "  The  Treaty  of  Washington,"  says :  "  The  paral- 

1  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  art.  10. 

2  American  State  1'apers,  Foreign  Affairs,  vol.  iii.  p.  90.    See,  also, 
Message  of  President  Jefferson,  with  documents,  March  30,  1808. 

14 


210     OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

lei  of  forty-nine  degrees  was  established  between  France 
and  Great  Britain  by  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht."  * 

The  conclusion  seems  warranted,  therefore,  that  when 
France,  in  1762,  conveyed  secretly  to  Spain  all  her 
possessions  west  of  the  Mississippi,  she  conveyed  up 
north  and  out  west  on  this  line  between  her  and  Great 
Britain,  according  to  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  —  the  49th 
parallel.  On  this  same  northern  and  westward  line 
Spain  reconveyed  this  identical  territory  to  France  in 
1800,  and  in  1803  France  sold  the  same  in  both  area 
and  boundaries  to  the  United  States. 

The  hasty  reader  would  think  that  he  here  finds  an 
original  and  continued  title  to  the  Oregon,  vested  in 
Spain.  While  there  are  negotiations  about  the  terri- 
tory, they  pertain  to  tenancy  and  not  to  ownership. 
Touching  the  latter  Spain  is  constantly  sensitive,  prior 
to  the  Nootka  Convention,  and  down  to  her  final  trans- 
fer of  the  region  to  France,  keeping  the  ownership  in 
her  own  hands  by  the  assertion  of  her  claim.  She  lin- 
gered over  that  ownership  with  a  wonderful  tenacity. 
For  after  she  had  reconveyed  the  territory  to  France  in 
1800,  she  was  indignant  that  France  sold  it  to  the 
United  States,  and  delayed  to  pass  the  papers  of  sale, 
and  entered  protest  against  it,  in  informal  ways. 

Both  France  and  the  United  States  grew  anxious  over 
the  delay,  and  the  latter  was  quieted  by  the  assurance 
of  Napoleon  that  he  guaranteed  the  cession.  But  the 
conveyance  was  made  embarrassing,  and  the  formal 
transfer  of  territory  and  sovereignty  at  New  Orleans, 
by  France,  to  the  United  States,  December  20,  1803, 
was  not  free  from  anxiety.  The  Spanish  had  formally 
transferred  the  territory  to  France  only  twenty  days 

1  The  Treaty  of  Washington.    By  Caleb  Gushing,  1873,  p.  208. 


TITLES  TO  OREGON.  211 

before,  and  the  officials  on  both  sides  had  fears  that  the 
old  Spanish  populace,  with  the  French  mere  or  less 
consenting,  would  make  a  popular  demonstration.  How- 
ever, the  august  occasion  passed  in  quiet. 

The  national  spirit,  more  than  the  letter  of  any  treat- 
ies with  England,  showed  that  Spain  constantly  affirmed 
her  title  on  the  northwest  up  to  54°  40'.  Up  to  the 
forty-ninth  she  conveyed  the  same  back  to  France,  and 
so  France  to  the  United  States.  If  she  had  any  rem- 
nant there  after  this,  it  was  conveyed  to  the  United 
States  by  the  Florida  Treaty  of  1819,  which  conveyed 
all  hers,  north  of  forty-two,  to  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER 

THE    CLAIMS    OP   THE    UNITED    STATES   TO    OREGON. 

THE  claims  of  the  United  States  to  Oregon,  as  the 
question  drew  its  slow  length  along  through  threescore 
years,  became  a  tedious,  and  perplexing,  and  annoying 
topic.  In  few  cases  has  diplomacy  showed  better  its 
ability  not  to  do  a  thing,  than  in  the  settlement  of  the 
Oregon  question.  Yet,  now  that  it  is  settled,  the  salient 
points  stand  out  with  singular  simplicity  and  strength. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  the  extent  of  domain  and  the 
vast  natural  values  in  the  territory  in  dispute  should 
stimulate  great  national  desire,  and  draw  into  the  case 
all  the  misty  indefiniteness  of  the  laws  of  nations,  so 
called,  and  all  the  finesse  of  astute  negotiation.  It  must 
be  confessed,  too,  that  the  affair  had  some  inherent  dif- 
ficulties. Few  men  of  state  in  the  generation  of  noble 
ones  then  on  the  stage  were  better  fitted  to  handle  this 
question  and  speak  of  it  than  Albert  Gallatin,  and  in 
one  of  his  most  helpful  letters  on  it  he  says  :  "  It  is 
morally  impossible  for  the  bulk  of  the  people  of  any 
country  thoroughly  to  investigate  a  subject  so  complex 
as  that  of  the  respective  claims  of  the  Oregon  ter- 
ritory." 

A  tract  of  country  four  times  as  large  as  Great  Brit- 
ain and  Ireland,  already  half  in  the  grasp  and  within 
the  possible  monopoly  of  a  government  whose  realm 
lies  scattered  around  the  world,  could  not  but  interest 


UNITED  STATES1   CLAIM  TO  OREGON.       213 

intensely  that  government.  A  territory  that  would  make 
sixty-three  states  as  large  as  Massachusetts,  and  natu- 
rally quite  as  inviting  to  human  homes  as  that  ancient 
domain  was  .in  its  primitive  state,  could  not  be  aban- 
doned by  the  United  States  in  the  face  of  four  separate 
and  independent  titles  to  it,  till  each  had  been  shown 
to  be  worthless.  Of  course  it  was  or  should  be  a  ques- 
tion of  right  and  not  of  power,  though  several  times  it 
came  near  to  a  vindication  of  the  right  by  artillery  and 
bayonet. l 

A  few  passages  will  serve  to  state  the  substance  of  the 
grounds  on  which  the  United  States  claimed  Oregon. 

1.  By  prior  discovery.  As  the  new  world  was  a  nov- 
elty to  the  old,  so  sectional  discoveries  in  it  by  different 
nations  introduced  into  the  law  of  nations  novel  rights 
and  laws  concerning  newly  discovered  lands.  By  gene- 
ral consent  the  discovery  of  the  St.  Lawrence  gave  the 
basin  of  that  river  to  the  French,  and  that  of  the  Hud- 
son to  the  Dutch,  and  of  the  Potomac  to  the  English, 
while  the  coasts  and  basins  of  New  Spain  fell  in  the 
same  way  to  Old  Spain.  On  the  same  general  princi- 
ples and  usages  the  United  States  claimed  the  country 
drained  by  the  Columbia,  since  that  river  had  been  dis- 
covered and  explored  by  Captain  Robert  Gray,  of  the 
ship  Columbia,  of  Boston,  in  1792. 

Suspicions  of  such  a  river  bad  been  abroad,  and  the 
Spanish  and  English  had  carefully  examined  the  coast 
for  the  mouths  of  large  streams,  and  some  had  come  nigh 
to  making  the  discovery,  as  Meares  and  Vancouver.  The 
former  was  led  on  by  old  Spanish  charts  which  laid  down 
such  a  river  under  the  name  of  the  St.  Roque.  Meares 
failed  to  find  the  mouth  of  the  supposed  river,  where  he 
was  led  to  explore  for  it  in  the  Straits  of  Fuca,  and  made 

1  The  territory  finally  conceded  was  equal  to  thirty-two  states  like 
Massachusetts. 


214    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

permanent  record  of  his  failure  in  the  two  titles  he  left 
there  —  Cape  Disappointment  and  Deception  Bay.  In 
a  similar  search  Vancouver  passed  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia,  and  noticed  "  river-colored  water  —  the  prob- 
able consequence  of  some  streams  falling  into  the  bay. 
.  .  .  Not  considering  their  opening  worthy  of  more  at- 
tention, I  continued  our  pursuit  to  the  northwest," 
being  satisfied  that  "  the  several  large  rivers  and  capa- 
cious ,inlets  that  have  been  described  as  discharging 
their  contents  into  the  Pacific,  between  the  fortieth  and 
forty-eighth  degrees  of  latitude,  were  reduced  to  brooks 
insufficient  for  our  vessels  to  navigate,  or  to  bays  inac- 
cessible as  harbors  for  refitting." 

Vancouver  scrutinized  that  coast  for  about  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles,  and  so  minutely,  he  says,  "  that  the 
surf  has  been  constantly  seen  from  the  masthead  to 
break  on  its  shores."  Thus  he  failed  to  discover  the 
mouth  of  the  Columbia,  mistaking  the  breakers  on  its 
fearful  bars  for  coast  surf.  This  entry  was  made  in  his 
journal  April  29,  1792. 

It  is  a  striking  coincidence  that  in  the  afternoon  of  the 
same  day  Captain  Gray  of  the  Columbia  fell  in  with 
Vancouver,  in  the  Strait  of  Fuca,  north  of  the  river  in 
question,  and  informed  him  that  he  had  very  recently 
been  off  the  mouth  of  a  river  in  latitude  forty-six  ten, 
"  where  the  outset  or  reflux  was  so  strong  as  to  prevent 
his  entering  for  nine  days."  "  This  was  probably  the 
opening,"  continues  Vancouver,  "  passed  by  us  on  the 
forenoon  of  the  27th,  and  was  apparently  inacces- 
sible, not  from  the  current,  but  from  the  breakers  that 
extended  across  it."  The  two  captains  parted  —  the  Eng- 
lishman going  north  and  the  American  south,  on  their 
discoveries. 


UNITED  STATES'   CLAIM  TO  OREGON.         215 

Thirteen  days  afterward,  May  llth,  Gray  rediscov- 
ered the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  ran  iu  under  full  sail 
between  the  breakers  —  Vancouver's  "  surf."  He  an- 
chored ten  miles  up  from  the  mouth,  spent  three  days 
in  trade  and  in  filling  the  water  casks,  and  then  ran  up 
fifteen  miles  farther  and  anchored.  After  spending  nine 
days  iu  the  river,  he  left  it,  giving  to  it  the  name  of  his 
ship.  . 

The  British  statement  of  the  Oregon  case,  filed  in  for 
the  sixth  Conference,  in  1826-27,  admits  that  Gray  dis- 
covered the  Columbia.  "  It  must,  indeed,  be  admitted  that 
Mr.  Gray,  finding  himself  in  the  bay  formed  by  the  dis- 
charge of  the  waters  of  the  Columbia  into  the  Pacific, 
was  the  first  to  ascertain  that  this  bay  formed  the  outlet 
of  a  great  river."  Yet,  singularly,  they  call  this  a  "  sin- 
glo  step  in  the  progress  of  discovery,"  and  would  com- 
pel the  American  captain  to  share  the  honors  with  his 
English  successors,  who  afterward  went  farther  up  the 
river  England  is  brought  in  for  a  large  share  of  honors 
and  claims,  because  Vancouver  went  up  afterward  a  hun-  / 
dred  miles  farther  than  Gray  went  at  first.  And  he  did 
this  only  after  Gray  met  him  the  second  time  and  in- 
formed him  of  his  discovery  of  the  Columbia,  and  where 
he  would  find  it.  Without  this  information  Vancouver 
would  not  have  renewed  his  search  ;  and  as  it  was,  he 
simply  sent  his  lieutenant  to  take  soundings  and  bearings 
farther  up  stream,  under  the  information  of  the  captain 
of  the  Columbia.  This  is  the  English  "discovery"  of 
the  Columbia  River  ! 

Thus  the  discovery  of  a  river  is  made  a  progressive 
work  by  English  claimants,  as  if  one  could  discover  the 
Mississippi  at  New  Orleans,  and  another  at  Memphis, 
another  at  Cairo,  another  at  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri, 


216     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

and  so  on  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony.  As  if  the  dis- 
covery of  a  lost  cable  were  progressive,  as  the  separate 
links  in  the  chain  are  hauled  on  board.  If  this  had  not 
been  said  by  "  plenipotentiaries  "  we  should  call  it  puer- 
ile. Yet  even  Professor  Twiss  of  Oxford,  in  an  elabor- 
ate discussion  of  the  Oregon  question,  says  :  "  Captain 
Gray's  claim  is  limited  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia." 
A  few  years  afterward  Lewis  and  Clark  struck  its  head 
waters  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  followed  them  to 
the  mouth,  and  so  its  discovery,  outlet  and  sources,  were 
American.  By  the  usage  of  those  times,  which  was  the 
law  of  nations,  so  called,  that  discovery  of  a  large  river 
on  an  unexplored  coast  by  an  American  citizen  gave  its 
basin  to  the  United  States. 

2.  By  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  This  constituted  an 
important  point  in  the  claims  of  the  United  States  to 
Oregon.  We  have  already  noticed  that  in  1762  France 
ceded  to  Spain  all  her  territory  west  of  the  Mississippi, 
that  Spain  returned  it  in  1800,  and  that  France  sold  the 
same  to  the  United  States  in  1803,  "  with  all  its  rights 
and  appurtenances,"  says  the  treaty,  "as  fully,  and  in 
the  same  manner,  as  they  have  been  acquired  by  the 
French  Republic."  We  have  also  seen  that  the  northern 
boundary  of  this  Louisiana  province  was  the  forty-ninth 
parallel,  running  westwardly  "along  that  line  indefi- 
nitely." As  this  northern  boundary  is  not  said,  in  any 
specific  words  of  the  negotiations  or  treaty  of  sale  and 
purchase,  to  be  extended  to  the  Pacific,  but  only  in  that 
direction  "  indefinitely,"  there  is  room  for  a  doubt  how 
far  west  the  Louisiana  extended  on  that  parallel. 

If,  however,  the  claims  of  France  failed  to  reach  tho 
Pacific  on  that  line,  it  must  have  been  because  they  en- 
countered the  old  claims  of  Spain,  that  preceded  tha 


UNITED  STATES'  CLAIMS  TO  OREGON.   217 

Nootka  Treaty,  and  were  tacitly  conceded  at  that  time 
and  in  it  by  England.  Between  the  French  claims  on 
the  south  of  that  line  prior  to  the  transfer  of  17G2,  and 
the  Spanish  claims  prior  to  the  Nootka  Treaty,  and  the 
re-transfer  to  France  in  1800,  there  was  no  unclaimed 
territory  on  which  England  could  base  a  claim.  If  the 
United  States  did  not  acquire  through  to  the  Pacific  on 
the  south  of  that  parallel  of  forty-nine  by  the  Louisiana 
Purchase,  it  was  because  Spain  was  owner  there  prior 
to  the  first  and  second  and  third  Louisiana  transfers. 
The  English  were  not  there  by  discovery  to  encounter  a 
United  States  extension,  by  the  purchase,  to  the  Pacific, 
for  the  United  States  had  preceded  the  English  in  dis- 
covery; they  were  not  there  by  concession  from  the 
Spanish,  for  the  Spanish  refused  the  claim  and  England 
did  not  reaffirm  it,  either  in  1790  or  1814;  they  were 
not  there  by  occupation,  for  they  had  no  settlements. 

If,  therefore,  the  United  States  failed  to  gain  the  Pa- 
cific coast  in  that  purchase  it  was  because  Spain  had  not 
relinquished  her  .rights  there.  This  point  will  receive  a 
separate  consideration  at  the  close  of  this  chapter  on  the 
United  States  claims  to  Oregon. 

3.  By  prior  explorations.  The  purchase  of  the  Louis- 
iana by  the  United  States  was  known  at  once  among  the 
nations.  Immediately,  and  openly,  under  their  full 
view,  and  as  if  with  full  right  to  go  and  examine  a  piece 
of  newly  purchased  property,  the  United  States  sent 
Lewis  and  Clark  to  explore  this  grand  addition  to  the 
Union.  The  expedition  consisted  of  the  joint  command- 
ers, nine  young  Kentuckians,  fourteen  United  States 
soldiers,  two  Canadian  voyageurs,  and  one  negro,  the 
body  servant  of  Captain  Clark,  —  twenty-eight  persons. 
It  spent  the  winter  of  1803-4  in  camp  on  the  Mississippi, 


218  OREGON:     THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

at  the  mouth  of  Wood  River,  just  below  Alton,  and  op- 
posite the  mouths  of  the  Missouri.  They  broke  camp 
May  14,  1804,  and  made  the  round  trip  to  the  Pacific 
and  back  in  two  years,  four  months,  and  nine  days  — 
saluting  St.  Louis,  and  receiving  a  most  hearty  and  noisy 
welcome  from  that  polyglot  village,  September  23, 1806, 
at  noon. 

This  was  no  private  enterprise,  as  of  scientific  men  or 
Indian  traders.  Ilearne  had  explored  his  way  to  the 
Arctic,  and  Mackenzie  to  the  Pacific,  in  the  interests  of 
a  corporation,  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  for  commer- 
cial gain  ;  but  this  was  a  government  enterprise,  and 
confessedly  for  government  ends.  The  official  explora- 
tion of  the  property,  recently  and  notably  purchased,  was 
not  followed  by  any  objection  or  warning  from  any  party 
once  or  still  in  interest  on  the  northwest  coast,  as  the 
Russians,  Spanish,  French,  or  English.  This  is  the 
more  noteworthy,  since  there  were  national  ambitious 
and  sensitiveness  over  the  ownership  of  those  vast  re- 
gions presumed  to  be  embraced  in  the  Louisiana. 

The  Spanish  tone  of  that  day  is  illustrative.  Lewis 
and  Clark  had  proposed  to  run  up  the  Missouri  to  La 
Charrette,  a  frontier  settlement,  and  spend  their  first 
winter  there  ;  but  the  governor  of  this  upper  prov- 
ince of  Louisiana  forbade  their  entering  the  territory, 
since  he  had  received  no  official  notice  of  its  transfer. 
When  sixteen  days  up  the  Missouri  the  following  spring 
they  learned  that  the  letter,  announcing  there  the  sale  of 
the  territory,  was  burned  publicly  in  indignation. 

England  was  never  behind  Spain  in  her  ambition  and 
technical  pleas  for  territory,  as  India,  and  China,  and 
the  Belize,  and  Afghanistan,  the  Zululand,  and  the 
Transvaal,  and  Egypt,  will  show.  Yet  the  assumption 


UNITED  STATES'   CLAIMS  TO  OREGON.        219 

by  the  United  States  iu  this  expedition  that  Oregon  had     ! 
been    purchased   by  her  was  not  questioned  by  Great  ' 
Britain. 

Resting  on  the  exploration,  the  government,  from 
time  to  time,  farther  assumed  the  ownership  by  Con- 
gressional bills  and  discussions  and  enactments  ;  and  the 
people  followed  this  up  with  private  companies,  organized 
for  trade  within  the  territory.  So  it  came  to  pass  that 
the  entire  region  from  the  head  waters  of  the  Columbia 
and  its  affluents,  and,  to  an  extent,  those  of  the  Sacra- 
mento and  Eraser's  rivers,  was  explored  by  enterprising 
Americans,  as  on  their  own  soil.  What  Pike  and  Long 
did  in  the  eastern  sections  of  the  purchase,  Lewis  and 
Clark,  and  Fremont  and  Whitman  and  Parker  accom- 
plished in  and  beyond  the  mountains. 

4.  By  prior  settlements.  We  distinguish  here  between 
the  occupation  and  the  settlement  of  a  country.  Hud- 
son Bay  traders  and  trappers  occupied  Oregon  for  peltry 
and  furs,  and  thereby  gained  the  rights  of  hunters. 
Such  pursuits  and  rights  are  the  same  as  those  of  the 
native  Indians.  It  is  claimed  that  the  interests  of  civi- 
lization cannot  leave  vast  tracts  of  wild  country  to  the 
Indians,  for  a  game  life.  But  this  English  company 
used  and  were  usurping  the  country  in  question  for  no 
broader  purpose,  only  that  they  procured  a  surplus  of 
hunter  spoils,  and  put  it  on  the  market  of  the  world. 
They  did  not  increase  the  natural  productions  of  the 
country,  they  did  not  propose  settlements  that  imply  a 
family  and  a  plow  and  water-wheel. 

The  first  corporation  aud  colony  to  contemplate  set- 
tlements was  Aatoc&  His  project,  as  his  correspondence 
with  government  through  Jefferson  shows,  anticipated 
civil  society,  and  government  favored  his  plans,  as  com- 


220   OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

prehending  civilization  on  the  northwest  coast,  and  bind- 
ing over  the  territory  to  the  Union  by  settlements.  That 
Astor  took  possession  of  American  domain,  and  had  pos- 
sessions in  the  laud  that  were  national,  is  evident  from 
the  fact  that  after  the  war  of  1812  and  the  English  cap- 
ture of  Astoria,  it  was  restored  to  the  United  States,  by 
treaty,  which  stipulated  the  restoration  of  "all  territory 
places,  and  possessions  whatever,  taken  by  either  party 
from  the  other  during  the  war."  In  the  restoration  the 
English  official  calls  it  "  the  settlement."  This  was  the 
first  made  by  white  men  in  the  valley  of  the  Columbia, 
and  establishes  the  claim  of  the  United  States  there  by 
prior  settlement. 

Following  the  restoration  of  Astoria  in  1818.  which 
was  the  first  germ  of  civilization  planted  on  that  coast 
in  1811,  there  came  at  length  the  family  and  the  white 
man's  frame  house,  the  plow  and  seed  wheat  and  the  gar- 
den, the  saw  and  grain  mill  and  printing-press.  These 
were  the  first  ripples  of  that  coming  human  tide  of  civil- 
ized life  that  now  flows  and  ebbs  so  splendidly  on  those 
far-off  shores.  Domestic  animals  crowded  off  the  wild 
ones,  and  the  pursuits  of  the  chase  gave  place  to  the  in- 
dustries that  have  there  made  a  noble  people. 

In  almost  every  instance  where  the  labors  and  arts  of 
society  broke  up  the  wild  life  of  the  trapper  and  trader 
and  factor,  the  innovation  and  elevation  came  from  the 
United  States.  It  is  not  necessary  to  itemize,  for  all 
histories,  sketches,  and  travels  touching  primitive  times 
and  the  dawn  of  civilization  in  that  country,  came  in  the 
line  of  its  discovery  and  purchase  and  exploration  by 
the  United  States. 

Concerning  the  claims  of  Spain  on  the  northwest  coast, 
and  the  effect  of  the  Nootka  Treaty  of  1790  on  them,  an 


UNITED  STATES'   CLAIMS   TO  OREGON.        221 

additional  remark  should  here  be  made.  That  treaty 
made  stipulations  concerning  navigationjmd  commerce, 
and  left  a  right  common  to  Great  Britain  and  Spain  to 
occupy  ihfe  country  temporarily  for  trade.  But  rights  of 
sovereignty  and  jurisdiction  were  not  conveyed  by  the  lat- 
ter to  the  former.  The  question  of  sovereignty  was  ex- 
pressly kept  in  abeyance.  However  arrogant,  therefore, 
the  claims  of  Spain  were  to  sovereignty  over  the  territory 
of  Oregon  before  the  Nootka  Convention,  they  were  not 
yielded  or  abridged  by  it,  and  it  was  admitted  in  Parlia- 
ment that  England  lost  rather  than  gained  by  the  new 
arrangement. 

The  whole  treaty  was  abrogated  by  the  war  which 
soon  followed  between  the  parties;  and  afterward,  1814, 
only  the  commercial  articles  in  it  were  renewed.  The 
territorial  claims  of  the  parties  to  Oregon  were,  there- 
fore, never  adjusted  between  them,  and  the  ancient  as- 
sumptions of  Spain  were  still  in  force  when  the  United 
States  purchased  Louisiana  in  1803,  and  made  the  Flor- 
ida Treaty  with  Spain  in  1819.  In  this  Florida  Treaty 
is  a  clause  very  significant  to  the  interests  of  the  United 
States.  By  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  1713,  between  the 
English  and  the  French,  Mr.  Madison  says  :  "  There  is 
reason  to  believe  that  the  boundary  between  Louisiana 
and  the  British  territories  north  of  it  was  actually  fixed 
by  commissioners  appointed  under  the  treaty,  and  that 
the  boundary  was  to  run  from  the  Lake  of  the  Woods 
westwardly  on  latitude  forty-nine,"  and  he  says  it  was 
run  "along  that  line  indefinitely." 

When  France  conveyed  the  Louisiana  to  Spain  in  1762 
she  conveyed  up  to  and  along  this  line  westward.  It 
is  a  common  historical  conviction  that  she  conveyed  west- 
ward to  the  Pacific  on  that  parallel  of  forty-nine.  If 


222     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

she  did  not,  it  must  have  been  because,  over  the  moun* 
tains,  she  encountered  the  more  ancient  Spanish  claims. 
Be  it  either  way,  after  the  conveyance,  Spain  ov?ned 
westward  from  the  Mississippi  along  the  parallel  of  forty- 
nine  and  south  of  it  to  the  Pacific. 

When  Spain  reconvej'ed  the  same  to  France  it  was, 
in  the  language  of  the  third  article  of  the  treaty,  "  the 
colony  or  provinces  of  Louisiana,  with  the  same  extent 
which  it  now  has  in  the  hands  of  Spain,  and  which  it  had 
when  France  possessed  it,  and  such  as  it  should  be,  ac- 
cording to  the  treaties  subsequently  made  between  Spain 
and  other  states."  Now  as  Spain,  in  the  Nootka  Treaty, 
had  not  alienated  any  of  this  territory,  and  as  she  had 
made  in  the  interval  no  other  treaty  by  which  she  could, 
she  retroceded  to  France  all  which  she  had  received 
from  her.  That  was  westward  to  the  Pacific,  or  to  her 
possessions  on  the  Pacific,  be  the  fact  of  possession  as  it 
may.  If,  therefore,  after  the  United  States  had  made 
the  Louisiana  Purchase,  she  did  not  own  through  on  the 
forty-ninth  parallel  to  the  Pacific,  it  must  have  been  be- 
cause Spain  owned  the  Oregon  prior  to  the  Treaty  of 
Utrecht,  1713,  did  not  acquire  it  from  France  in  1762, 
and  could  not  retrocede  it  to  France,  so  as  to  become 
a  part  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  by  the  United  States. 
It  is,  therefore,  pertinent  to  remark  that  when  Lewis 
and  Clark  explored  Oregon,  they  explored  either 
United  States  or  Spanish  territory. 

From  that  date  till  1819  Spain  made  no  changes  of 
ownership,  sovereignty,  and  jurisdiction  touching  Oregon. 
And  now  come  the  important  concessions  by  Spain  to 
the  United  States  in  the  Florida  Treaty  of  1819. 

After  marking  the  boundary  line  between  the  two 
countries  west  of  the  Mississippi,  beginning  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Sabine  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  running  vari- 


UNITED  STATES'   CLAIMS   TO  OREGON.       223 

ously  north  and  west  till  it  reaches  the  Pacific  on  lati- 
tude forty-two,  the  third  article  in  the  treaty  says  :  "  His 
Catholic  majesty  cedes  to  the  United  States  all  his  rights, 
claims,  and  pretensions  to  any  territories  east  and  north 
of  the  said  line ;  and  for  himself,  his  heirs  and  successors, 
renounces  all  claims  to  the  said  territories  forever." 
This  made  the  United  States  the  owner,  in  the  place  of 
Spain,  of  all  the  territorial  right  of  the  latter  in  the 
northwest,  north  of  the  present  southern  boundary  of 
Oregon.  The  value  of  that  concession,  by  the  law  of 
nations,  must  be  estimated  by  the  facts  now  given. 

The  validity  and  strength  of  the  claims  of  the  United 
States  to  the  Oregon,  as  discoverer,  purchaser,  explorer, 
settler,  and  as  successor  to  Spain,  were  realized,  and  to  an 
extent  conceded,  by  Great  Britain.  During  negotiations 
in  1826-27  her  plenipotentiaries  said  formally  what  Eng- 
land usually  said  from  first  to  last :  "  Great  Britain 
claims  no  exclusive  sovereignty  over  any  portion  of  that 
territory.  Her  present  claim,  not  in  respect  to  any 
part,  but  to  the  whole,  is  limited  to  a  right  of  joint  oc- 
cupancy, in  common  with  other  states,  leaving  the  right 
of  exclusive  dominion  in  abeyance."  In  view  of  the 
facts  given,  this  confession  approximates  a  quit-claim. 

Therefore,  in  the  matter  of  the  American  claim  to 
Oregon  below  forty-nine,  two  things  may  be  said  in  con- 
cluding the  investigation  of  titles  to  it.  First,  that  the 
United  States  obtained  it  in  the  Louisiana  Purchase. 
Second,  if  any  portion  of  it  was  not  thus  conveyed,*be- 
ing  retained  in  the  rights  of  Spain,  then  Spain  conveyed 
it  in  1819  in  the  words  of  the  Florida  Treaty :  "His 
Catholic  majesty  cedes  to  the  United  States  all  his  rights, 
claims,  and  pretensions  to  any  territories  east  and  north 
of  the  said  line,"  —  the  forty-second  parallel  of  latitude 
on  the  Oregon  coasts. 


CHAPTER  XXIH. 

HISTORY   VINDICATED. 

THERE  has  been  an  impression  that  Mr.  Webster  failed 
to  grasp  the  Oregon  case,  slighted  the  American  inter- 
est, and  would  have  compromised  our  rights,  if  Presi- 
dent Tyler  had  not  interposed  to  delay  negotiations. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  Mr.  Webster  viewed  the  case 
much  through  the  English  medium.  No  doubt  the  Hud- 
son Bay  Company  had  been  long  and  carefully  preparing 
testimony  in  public  opinion  to  carry  the  settlement  iu 
their  favor.  It  would  not  be  strange  if  Webster  shared 
the  views  and  feelings  of  the  statesmen  and  other  public 
men  of  the  day  on  the  general  question.  The  East  has 
always  been  conservative  and  sometimes  unfortunately 
and  painfully  laggard  concerning  the  extent  and  growth 
and  worth  and  hastening  power  of  the  West.  In  mat- 
ters of  education  and  religion  in  the  West,  as  affecting 
vitally  the  future  of  the  Republic,  shortsightedness  is  yet 
far  from  being  cured.  Yet  the  partisans  of  Oregon  must 
not  think  that  the  great  statesman  held  the  Pacific  coast 
of  no  account  because  he  would  not  adopt  the  motto : 
"  Fifty-four  Forty,  or  Fight."  In  1845,  and  before  the 
Oregon  struggle  was  ended,  he  wrote  to  his  son  Fletcher : 
"  You  know  my  opinion  to  have  been,  and  it  now  is, 
that  the  port  of  San  Francisco  would  be  twenty  times 
as  valuable  to  us  as  all  Texas."  The  Secretary  enter- 
tained no  extreme  views  either  way  concerning  the  titles 


HISTORY  VINDICATED.  225 

and  final  possession  of  Oregon,  nor  does  it  appear  that 
there  was  ever  any  radical  change  in  his  views.  The 
settlement  was  finally  made  on  the  boundary  and  terms 
which  he  proposed,  after  his  interviews  with  Whitman, 
and  the  country  was  satisfied  with  the  result.  Indeed,  in 
1839,  four  years  before,  when  some  spoke  of  Mr.  Webster 
as  special  envoy  to  England  to  settle  the  northeastern 
boundary,  he  drew  up  a  memorandum  of  plan  for  settle- 
ment for  the  use  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  cabinet.  In  his  life 
of  Webster  Mr.  Curtis  says :  "  The  germs  of  the  nego- 
tiation, which  afterward  led  to  the  Treaty  of  Washington 
[Ashburton's]  were  contained  in  this  memorandum." 
Through  that  ardent  Oregon  era  he  showed  the  interest 
of  a  patriot  and  the  wisdom  of  a  statesman.  His  state 
of  mind,  always  predisposed  that  way,  needed  both  the 
information  and  the  plan  which  Whitman  took  to  his 
office,  and  his  course  afterward  showed  that  he  used  the 
one  and  adopted  the  other.  In  a  letter  the  next  year  to 
Mr.  Everett,  our  minister  to  England,  Mr.  Webster, 
eays :  "The  ownership  of  the  whole  country  is  very 
likely  to  follow  the  greater  settlement,  and  larger  amount 
of  population  "  —  the  great  idea  which  Whitman  brought 
to  him  over  the  mountains. 

He  gave  full  credit  to  Dr.  Whitman  for  all  this,  in  a 
remark  to  a  legal  gentleman  and  personal  friend  :  "  It 
is  safe  to  assert  that  our  country  owes  it  to  Dr.  Whit- 
man and  his  associate  missionaries  that  all  the  territory 
west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  south  as  far  as  the  Col- 
umbia River,  is  not  now  owned  by  England  and  held  by 
the  Hudson  Bay  Company." 

When  President  Tyler  communicated  the  Ashburton 
Treaty  to  the  Senate,  in  August,  1843,  he  said  that  they 
found,  early  in  the  general  negotiations,  that  there  was 
U 


226     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

little  probability  of  agreeing  then  on  the  Oregon  part  of 
the  boundary,  and  it  therefore  seemed  best  to  omit  it  from 
the  treaty.  In  his  annual  message  in  December  following, 
he  a^ain  says  that  a  failure  to  agree  on  the  Oregon  ques- 
tion would  have  probably  carried  with  it  a  failure  of  the 
entire  treaty,  and  so  Oregon  was  left  out.  He  then 
adds :  "  I  shall  not  delay  to  urge  on  Great  Britain  the 
importance  of  its  early  settlement."  And  closely  fol- 
lowing the  proclamation  of  the  Ashburton  Treaty  Mr. 
Webster  wrote  to  our  minister  at  St.  James  to  urge  the 
settlement.  What  he  said  afterward,  with  emphasis,  and 
for  both  nations  to  hear,  he  was  ready  to  say,  early  as 
well  as  late,  in  this  long  discussion  :  "  The  government 
of  the  United  States  has  never  offered  any  line  south  of 
forty-nine,  and  it  never  will,  ft  behooves  all  concerned 
to  regard  this  as  a  settled  point.  .  .  .  England  must  not 
expect  anything  south  of  the  forty-ninth  degree." 

No  doubt  Dr.  Whitman,  on  his  arrival  in  Washington, 
received  and  appreciated  all  these  facts.  Oregon  had 
not  been  included  in  the  Ashburton  Treaty,  because  the 
times  were  not  ripe  for  it,  and  he  was  wanted  to  furnish 
the  needed  information,  and  open  an  easy  trail  to  the  Pa- 
cific. In  judging  whether  Mr.  Webster  was  peculiarly 
lacking  in  interest  for  Oregon  at  that  interview,  the  tone 
of  the  times  should  be  considered.  When  the  Doctor 
arrived  the  omissions  of  the  Ashburton  Treaty  had  been 
under  elaborate  discussion  in  Congress.  Linn's  resolu- 
tion, calling  for  information  on  the  omission  of  Oregon 
had  prolonged  the  debates,  and  then  a  bill  for  the  oc- 
cupation and  settlement  of  Oregon,  had  been  rejected 
in  the  House  only  fifteen  days  before  his  arrival.  The 
times,  not  the  Secretary,  deferred  action,  and  Oregon 
was  waiting  for  Whitman  at  Washington,  instead  of 


HISTORY  VINDICATED.  227 

being  delayed  and  half  declined  by  the  indifference  of 
Webster. 

Some  remarks  made  in  the  Senate  in  August,  1842, 
by  Mr.  Calhoun,  in  this  discussion  on  the  omissions  of 
the  Ashburton  Treaty,  are  pertinent  in  this  place: 
"  Would  it  be  wise  to  reject  the  treaty  because  all  has 
not  been  done  that  could  be  desired  ?  He  placed  a  high 
value  on  our  territory  on  the  west  of  those  mountains, 
and  held  our  title  to  be  clear,  but  he  would  regard  it  as 
an  act  of  consummate  folly  to  stake  our  claim  on  a  trial 
of  strength  at  this  time.  .  <,  .  Our  population  is  stead- 
ily, he  might  say  rapidly  advancing  across  the  continent 
to  the  borders  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Judging  from  past 
experience  the  tide  of  population  will  sweep  across  the 
Rocky  Mountains  with  resistless  force  at  no  distant  pe- 
riod, when  what  we  claim  will  quietly  fall  into  our  hands 
without  expense  or  bloodshed.  Time  is  acting  for  us. 
Wait  patiently  and  all  we  claim  will  be  ours ;  but  if  we 
attempt  to  seize  it  by  force,  it  will  be  sure  to  elude  our 
grasp." 

Probably  Whitman  was  more  glad  than  any  one  that 
negotiation  had  not  again  been  forced,  since  failure 
would  have  been  inevitable.  The  wisdom  of  the  Presi- 
dent and  Secretary  must  have  satisfied  this  eminently 
sensible  man.  He  found  his  information  as  welcome  as 
it  was  needed,  and  his  plan  to  save  Oregon  cordially 
adopted.  As  yet  Oregon  was  safe  against  any  diplomatic 
committal,  and  he  had  the  assurance  of  the  government 
that  it  would  wait  on  his  plan.  Practically  the  destiny 
of  Oregon  lay  in  his  hand,  for  a  reasonable  time,  by  the 
consent  of  the  government.  Dr.  Whitman  could  ask  no 
more,  nor  do  any  writings  or  data  of  that  time  show  that 
he  left  Washington  disappointed.  Specially  he  was  r&- 


OREGON:  THE    STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

lieved  of  the  great  burden  of  anxiety  that  he  brought  over 
the  mountains,  lest  the  interests  of  Oregon  should  be 
sacrificed  or  put  in  more  imminent  peril  by  the  Ashbur- 
ton  Treaty.  That  grave  fear  was  quieted  when  we 
welcomed  him  in  St.  Louis  from  the  Santa  Fe  trail,'  in 
February,  1843,  and  informed  him  that  the  Ashburton 
Treaty  had  been  concluded  six  months  before,  and  in  no 
way  referred  to  the  Oregon  question. 

The  Doctor  had  arrived  in  "Washington  just  in  time 
to  make  such  a  visit  of  the  greatest  service  in  weak- 
ening the  English  and  strengthening  the  American 
claims ;  and  to  him  above  any  other  man,  and  beyond 
comparison,  must  be  given  the  credit  of  saving  Oregon. 
He  does  not  appear  to  have  left  any  memoranda,  writ- 
ten or  printed,  of  his  interviews  with  the  President, 
Secretary  of  State,  or  members  of  Congress ;  nor  is 
there  found,  as  yet,  any  record  by  himself  of  his  views 
and  feelings  as  to  his  reception  at  Washington.  He 
gained  his  point,  made  a  hurried  visit  to  Boston  on 
missionary  business,  met  his  appointment  with  the  emi- 
grant bands  on  the  Missouri  borders,  led  them  to  Oregon, 
and  thus  practically  closed  the  Oregon  controversy. 
Words  and  views,  therefore,  reproduced  from  memory, 
many  years  afterward,  and  attributed  to  Dr.  Whitman, 
must  be  adjusted  to  the  official  documents  and  printed 
data,  speeches  in  Congress,  and  correspondence  of  those 
days.  An  impression  that  Mr.  Webster  failed  in  hearty 
interest  for  Oregon  has  gained  some  circulation,  though, 
as  is  well  known,  he  gave  the  great  weight  of  his  in- 
fluence and  labors  to  bring  about  the  result  so  generally 
acceptable.  This  wrong  impression  is  traceable,  substan- 
tially, to  three  sources,  recently  assuming  printed  form 
after  having  been  traditional  for  twenty  years  or  so. 


HISTORY  VINDICATED.  229 

In  1870  the  Rev.  H.  H.  Spalding,  the  honored  and 
venerable  missionary,  and  early  associate  of  Dr.  Whit- 
man, had  these  passages  in  a  lecture  which  he  gave  here 
and  there  in  the  East :  "  The  Doctor  pushed  on  to  Wash- 
ington and  immediately  sought  an  interview  with  Sec- 
retary Webster,  .  .  .  stated  to  him  the  object  of  his 
crossing  the  mountains,  and  laid  before  him  the  great 
importance  of  Oregon  to  the  United  States.  But  Mr. 
Webster  lay  too  near  to  Cape  Cod  to  see  things  in  the 
same  light  with  his  fellow  statesman,  who  had  trans- 
ferred his  worldly  interests  to  the  Pacific  coast.  He 
awarded  sincerity  to  the  missionary,  but  could  not  ad- 
mit for  a  moment  that  the  short  residence  of  six  years 
could  give  the  Doctor  the  knowledge  of  the  country 
possessed  by  Governor  Simpson,  who  had  almost  grown 
up  in  the  country,  and  had  traveled  every  part  of  it,  and 
represents  it  as  one  unbroken  waste  of  sand  deserts,  and 
impassable  mountains,  fit  only  for  the  beaver,  the  gray 
bear,  and  the  savage.  Besides,  he  had  about  traded  it 
off  with  Governor  Simpson  to  go  into  the  Ashburton 
Treaty,  for  a  cod-fishery  on  Newfoundland." 

He  then  had  an  interview  with  President  Tyler,  "  who 
at  once  appreciated  his  solicitude  and  his  timely  repre- 
sentations of  Oregon,  and  especially  his  disinterested 
though  hazardous  undertaking  to  cross  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains in  the  winter,  to  take  back  a  caravan  of  wagons. 
He  said  that  although  the  Doctor's  representations  of  the 
character  of  the  country,  and  the  possibility  of  reaching 
it  by  wagon  route,  were  in  direct  contradiction  to  those 
of  Governor  Simpson,  his  frozen  limbs  were  sufficient 
proof  of  his  sincerity,  and  his  missionary  character  was 
suilicient  guarantee  for  his  honesty ;  and  he  would,  there- 
fore, as  President,  rest  upon  them  and  act  accordingly, 


230     OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

would  detail  Fremont  with  a  military  force  to  escort  the 
Doctor's  caravan  through  the  mountains,  and  no  more 
action  should  be  had  toward  trading  off  Oregon  till  he 
could  hear  the  result  of  the  expedition,  .  .  .  the  swap- 
ping of  Oregon  with  England  for  a  cod-fishery  should 
stop  for  the  present." 

The  substance  of  this,  from  the  same  author,  Mr. 
Gray  found  in  a  California  paper,  and  copied  into  his 
"  History  of  Oregon,"  published  in  1870. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Hines,  also  the  author  of  a  history  of 
that  territory,  as  quoted  by  Gray,  says  :  "  On  the  arrival 
of  Dr.  Whitman  in  Washington  he  found  he  had  not 
started  one  day  too  soon  to  save  the  northwest  coast  to 
the  United  States.  The  Webster- Ashburton  Treaty,  by 
which  the  United  States  were  to  relinquish  to  England 
the  title  to  that  part  of  Oregon  north  of  the  Columbia, 
was  about  to  be  executed.  On  his  representations  of  the 
value  of  the  country,  and  of  the  practicability  of  a  wagon 
road  across  the  continent  to  the  Columbia,  the  President 
hesitated.  But  when  these  representations  were  en- 
forced by  the  fact  that  the  Doctor's  own  wife,  accompa- 
nied by  only  one  white  lady  companion,  had  already 
crossed  the  continent,  and  were  now  in  the  valley  of  the 
Walla  Walla,  lone  representatives  of  Christianity  and 
American  civilization,  he  hesitated  no  longer,  but  adopted 
the  course  of  action  which  resulted  in  securing  to  the 
United  States  the  title  to  Oregon  up  to  the  forty-ninth 
degree." 

The  "  Missionary  Herald "  for  1869  represents  Mr. 
Webster  as  saying  to  Dr.  Whitman  :  "  Wagons  cannot 
cross  the  mountains.  Sir  George  Simpson,  who  is  here, 
affirms  that,  and  so  do  all  his  correspondents  in  this  re- 
gion. Moreover,  I  am  about  trading  Oregon  for  New- 


HISTORY  VINDICATED.  231 

foumlland  and  the  English  cod-fisheries."  The  same 
article  makes  President  Tyler  say :  "  Dr.  Whitman, 
since  you  are  a  missionary  I  will  believe  you,  and  if  you 
will  take  the  proposed  emigration  to  Oregon  the  bargain 
shall  not  be  made"  (pp.  76-80). 

The  "  Atlantic  Monthly  "  has  this  paragraph  :  "  Mr. 
"Webster  was  at  one  time  disposed  to  cede  the  valley  of 
the  Columbia  River  for  the  free  right  to  fish  on  the  co- 
lonial coast  of  the  North  Atlantic  ;  Governor  Simpson 
of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  having  represented  Ore- 
gon as  worthless  for  agricultural  purposes,  and  only 
valuable  for  its  furs.  .  Just  then  Dr.  Whitman  arrived 
at  Washington,  dressed  in  the  Mackinaw  blanket  coat 
and  buckskin  leggins  in  which  he  had  crossed  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  to  plead  for  the  retention  of  Oregon.  '  But 
you  are  too  late,  Doctor,'  said  Mr.  Webster,  '  for  we  are 
about  to  trade  off  Oregon  for  the  cod-fisheries.' " l 
Another  authority  states  it  thus :  the  treaty  "  was  nearly 
ready  to  be  signed,  but  Dr.  Whitman  made  such  repre- 
sentations respecting  the  value  of  the  country  and  its 
accessibility  that  Mr.  Webster  promised  the  treaty  should 
be  suppressed  if  the  Doctor  would  conduct  a  caravan 
through  to  Oregon,  which  he  engaged  to  do." 

In  1881  the  American  Board  published  a  book  called 
the  "  Ely  Volume,"  designed  to  show  the  incidental 
contributions  of  its  foreign  missions  to  civilization,  sci- 
ence, and  the  growth  of  nations.  In  it  Webster  is  re- 
ported as  saying  to  Dr.  Whitman :  "  '  I  am  about  trading 
that  worthless  territory  for  some  valuable  claims  in  rela- 
tion to  the  Newfoundland  cod-fisheries.'  He  [Dr. 
Whitman]  then  went  to  President  Tyler  and  said  the 
same  things  [that  he  had  said  to  Mr.  Webster].  The 
l  Atlantic  Monthly,  October,  1880,  p.  534. 


232     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

President  replied,  '  Dr.  Whitman,  since  you  are  a  mis- 
sionary I  will  believe  you,  and  if  you  take  your  emi- 
grants over  there,  the  treaty  will  not  be  ratified.' " l 

To  the  same  purport  the  "  Missionary  Herald  "  says 
in  1882,  that  Dr.  Whitman  "  barely  succeeded  in  pre- 
venting the  exchange  of  that  whole  region  west  of  the 
mountains  for  some  additional  privileges  in  the  New- 
foundland fishery."  2 

The  three  passages,  however,  from  Mr.  Spalding, 
Mr.  Hines  and  Mr.  Gray,  appear  to  be  the  original 
triplet  that  have  produced  the  impressions  referred  to, 
that  Mr.  Webster  did  not  well  meet  and  handle  the  Ore- 
gon case.  Like  the  three  grains  of  wheat  of  which 
Humboldt  speaks,  which  the  negro  slave  of  the  great 
Cortez  found  in  the  imported  rice,  and  sowed  in  New 
Spain,  so  that  the  New  World  became  a  wheatfield, 
these  three  statements  have  multiplied  exceedingly. 
Within  a  few  years  they  have  reappeared  in  the  news- 
papers, secular  and  religious,  and  in  the  classic  monthly 
and  portly  volume. 

What  is  the  historical  ground  for  the  rumor  that 
Webster  slighted  Oregon  ?  These  statements  are  pro- 
duced from  memory  twenty-five  years,  at  least,  after 
Dr.  Whitman  submitted  the  Oregon  case  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  State.  They  assume  that  the  Doctor  was  barely 
in  time  to  keep  the  loss  of  Oregon  out  of  the  Ashburton 
Treaty  ;  as  Webster  "  had  about  traded  it  off  with  Gov- 
ernor Simpson  [of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company]  for  a 
cod-fishery  on  Newfoundland."  This  representation  is 
singular  in  four  particulars  : 

First,  Oregon  was  not  a  matter  of  negotiation  between 
Ashburton  and  Webster.  In  preliminary  and  informal 

i  Ely  Volume,  p.  14.  2  October,  1882,  p.  375. 


HISTORY  VINDICATED.  233 

conversation,  when  they  first  met,  they  saw  that  they 
could  not  agree  on  this  part  of  the  boundary  question, 
and  so  agreed  to  omit  it.  Indeed,  Lord  Ashburton  was 
not  prepared,  by  his  papers  of  instruction,  to  take  up 
the  question,  and  was  not  authorized  to  do  it,  and  it  no- 
where appears,  as  yet,  in  the  papers  of  the  department 
of  state  at  Washington,  or  in  the  Congressional  discus- 
sioa  over  the  Ashburton  and  Oregon  treaties,  that  the 
Secretary  expected,  or  was  expected  by  the  government, 
to  include  the  Oregon  question  in  the  Ashburton  Treaty. 
There  is,  therefore,  no  reference  to  it  in  the  treaty,  or  in 
the  documents  accompanying  the  treaty. 

Second,  the  charge  against  Webster  is  that  he  was 
about  to  exchange  Oregon  for  certain  English  fishing 
interests  on  our  northeast  coasts,  and  that  the  timely 
arrival  of  Whitman  at  Washington  prevented  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  from  executing  the  exchange  in  the  Ash- 
burton Treaty.  The  Ashburton  Treaty  was  concluded 
six  months  before  Whitman  arrived  at  Washington. 
The  two  negotiators  signed  it  August  9,  1842 ;  on  the 
eleventh  of  that  month  it  was  submitted  to  the  Senate  ; 
on  the  twenty-sixth  it  was  approved,  and  Lord  Ashburton 
started  with  it  the  same  day  for  England ;  and,  having 
been  ratified  and  returned  to  the  United  States,  it  was 
proclaimed  on  the  tenth  of  November.  Dr.  Whitman 
arrived  in  March  following. 

Third,  Governor  Simpson  was  not  an  agent  of  Great 
Britain,  and  had  no  authority  to  trade  off  cod-fisheries 
for  Oregon.  If  Sir  George  Simpson  even  visited  Wash- 
ington at  that  time  the  evidence  is  yet  wanting,  ex- 
cept in  rumors.  His  "  Narrative  of  a  Journey  Round 
the  World"  in  1841-1842,  .in  which  he  crossed  the 
continent  direct  and  with  expedition  from  Boston, 


234    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

via  Montreal  to  the  Columbia,  makes  no  mention  of  a 
vi^it  to  Washington,  and  seems  to  allow  no  time  for  it. 
If  Webster  made  the  reference  attributed  to  him,  it 
must  have  been  playfully,  as  when  he  wrote  his  daugh- 
ter, Mrs.  Paige,  a  few  days  after  signing  the  treaty : 
"The  only  question  of  magnitude  about  which  I  did 
not  negotiate  with  Lord  Ashburton  is  the  question  re- 
specting the  fisheries.  That  question  I  propose  to  take 
up  with  Mr.  Seth  Peterson  [Mr.  Webster's  Marshfield 
farmer]  on  Tuesday,  the  Gth  day  of  September  next,  at 
6  o'clock,  A.  M.  In  the  mean  time  I  may  find  a  leisure 
hour  to  drop  a  line  on  the  same  subject  at  Nahant." 

Fourth,  I  find  nothing  in  Mr.  Webster's  speeches, 
correspondence,  official  papers,  or  life,  going  to  suggest 
that  it  was  ever  a  plan  with  him  to  exchange  American 
interests  in  Oregon  for  English  interests  in  the  fisheries. 

The  statements  of  the  authors  quoted  are,  therefore, 
totally  at  variance  with  known  facts.  Memory  may 
have  failed  the  three  original  or  first  writers  in  the  long 
lapse  of  years,  or  traditions  and  rumors  may  have  come 
to  seem  like  historic  truths.  In  those  earlier  days  Ore- 
gon, where  these  three  writers  lived,  was  a  whole  sum- 
mer from  Washington,  and  information  was  fragmentary, 
and  not  always  reliable.  There  were  strong  probabilities 
in  the  case  that  the  Secretary  did  not  and  could  not  make 
such  plans  and  offers.  The  United  States  had  never 
offered  to  yield  any  territory  there  south  of  the  forty- 
ninth  degree.  The  commissioners  for  the  Treaty  of 
Ghent,  1814,  were  instructed  to  this  effect:  Monroe  of- 
fered forty-nine  in  1818  and  1824;  Adams  in  1826,  and 
Tyler  in  the  year  of  Dr.  Whitman's  visit.  The  nation 
was  committed  against  the  offer  attributed  to  Mr.  Web- 
ster, and  his  remark,  already  quoted,  was  but  the  voice 


BISTORT  VINDICATED.  235 

of  the  government ;  that  "  the  United  States  had  never 
offered  any  line  south  of  forty-nine,  and  it  never  will." 

It  is  easy  to  see  why  those  rumors  arose  and  were 
repeated.  Certain  parties  and  persons  were  disappointed 
in  the  Ashburton  Treaty  —  in  the  East  for  what  it  con- 
tained, and  in  the  West  for  what  it  did  not  contain. 
The  West  was  the  more  dissatisfied,  because  the  north- 
western boundary  was  not  touched,  and  it  could  not  ap- 
preciate the  reasons  for  failing  to  do  it. 

It  might  have  been  quieting  to  consider  what  Presi- 
dent Van  Buren  said  five  years  before:  "It  is  with 
unfeigned  regret  that  the  people  of  the  United  States 
must  look  back  upon  the  abortive  efforts  made  by  the 
executive  for  a  period  of  more  than  half  a  century,  to 
determine,  what  no  nation  should  suffer  long  to  remain 
in  dispute,  the  true  line  which  divides  its  possessions 
from  those  of  other  powers.  .  .  .  We  are  apparently  as 
far  from  its  adjustment  as  we  were  at  the  time  of  sign- 
ing the  treaty  of  peace  in  1783."  And  the  question 
came  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Webster  with  increased 
"  intricacies  and  complexities  and  perplexities." 

Local  ambitions  on  the  two  extremes  of  the  Union 
were  wounded  because  each  section  did  not  gain  all  it 
had  claimed  or  coveted.  A  recent  writer  in  the  "  Col- 
lections of  the  Maine  Historical  Society,"  gives  expres- 
sion to  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  Eastern  extremists: 
"  Never  was  there  such  a  history  of  errors,  mistakes, 
blunders,  concessions,  explanations,  apologies,  losses,  and 
mortifications." 

When  Mr.  Webster  undertook  the  settlement  of  the 
northeastern  boundary  question  it  had  been  in  hand 
between  the  two  governments  about  sixty  years.  Geo- 
graphers, civil  engineers  and  diplomatists,  had  sought 


236    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

the  lines  of  the  treaty  and  of  equity,  and  failed.  No 
new  light  could  be  reasonably  looked  for  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  three-score  years  past.  Mr.  Webster  struck 
out  on  a  new  and  confessed  line  of  compromise  as  the 
only  hopeful  and  at  the  same  time  peaceful  line.  He 
had  not  only  the  thinly  settled  inland  borders  of  New 
England,  but  the  whole  United  States,  as  his  client.  He 
had  not  only  three  hundred  miles  of  boundary  to  run 
for  New  England,  but  three  thousand  for  the  Union. 
Should  not  the  national  scope  of  the  question  insure  its 
broad  historical  treatment  in  our  day. 

It  annoyed  the  "Western  extremists  that  only  the  east- 
ern portion  of  the  boundary  was  covered,  and  it  was 
said,  with  some  feeling :  "  The  East  can  gain  its  ends 
at  Washington,  but  the  West  must  apply  at  London." 
With  more  patriotic  ardor  than  practical  sense  some 
would  have  taken  all  the  territory  in  dispute,  which 
included  the  present  British  Columbia,  up  to  Alaska, 
under  the  watchword  :  "  Fifty-four  Forty,  or  Fight." 
To  all  such  Mr.  Webster  could  give  no  aid  or  sympathy. 
In  an  article  on  Dr.  Whitman,  written  in  1880,  this  ral- 
lying cry  is  attributed  to  his  visit  to  Washington,  and  to 
his  success  in  taking  back  such  a  band  of  emigrants. 
The  writer  repeats  the  statements  which  we  have  cri- 
ticised, and  reproaches  the  Secretary  for  damaging  Ore- 
gon. Of  course  Mr.  Webster  must  disappoint  such  a 
man  till  war  should  become  an  inevitable  and  last  re- 
sort ;  and  meanwhile  a  damaging  rumor  or  tradition  that 
he  was  indifferent  to  Oregon  might  gain  the  position 
and  dignity  of  a  historical  item. 

When  a  national  election  had  been  carried  under  this 
war-cry,  and  before  its  administration  was  well  under 
way,  Mr.  Webster  spoke  on  the  Oregon  question  in 


HISTORY   VINDICATED.  237 

Faneuil  Hall,  Boston,  and  he  set  these  sentiments  in 
some  of  his  noblest  forms  of  English  speech.  Only  a 
passage  need  be  given  :  "  No,  gentlemen  !  the  man  who 
shall  incautiously,  or  led  on  by  false  ambition  or  party 
pride,  kindle  those  fires  of  war  over  the  globe  on  this 
question,  must  look  out  for  it  —  must  expect  himself  to 
be  consumed  in  a  burning  conflagration  of  general  re- 
proach." This  great  peace  speech  was  reproduced  in 
nearly  every  language  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 

To  any  and  all  who  purposed  to  possess  all  of  the 
ancient  Oregon,  up  to  fifty-four  forty,  the  present 
northern  limit  of  British  Columbia,  even  at  the  sacri- 
fices and  issues  of  war,  Mr.  Webster  was  an  intentional, 
operative,  and  formidable  obstacle.  Herein,  no  doubt, 
he  offended  some  who  may  have  represented  his  policy 
for  peace  as  neglect  of  Oregon. 

Dr.  Whitman's  information  supplemented  that  of  the 
President,  Secretary,  and  Congress,  generally  ;  it  recti- 
fied the  wrong  impressions  and  unjust  bias  which  English 
statements  had  made,  and  it  exposed  the  bold  scheme 
of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  to  capture  the  territory 
by  stealthy  colonization.  Full  time  was  promised  him 
to  show  to  the  government  that  a  carriage-route  to 
Oregon  was  feasible. 

"There  is  no  doubt,"  said  the  Honorable  Elwood 
Evans,  "that  the  arrival  of  Dr.  Whitman  was  oppor- 
tune. The  President  was  satisfied  that  the  territory  was 
worth  the  effort  to  save  it.  The  delay  incident  to  a 
transfer  of  negotiations  to  London  was  fortunate ;  for 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  if  formal  negotiations  had 
been  renewed  in  Washington,  and  that  for  the  sake  of 
settlement  of  the  protracted  controversy,  and  the  only 
remaining  uuadjudicated  cause  of  difference  between  the 


238      OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

two  governments,  had  the  offer  been  renewed  of  the  forty- 
ninth  parallel  to  the  Columbia,  and  thence  down  that 
river  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  it  would  have  been  accepted. 
The  visit  of  Whitman  committed  the  President  against 
any  such  settlement  at  that  time." l 

This  was  progress  for  Dr.  Whitman,  and  in  the  direct 
line  of  his  wonderful  ride,  and  he  crowned  his  plan  in 
the  success  of  his  cavalcade  of  immigrants.  After  his 
arrival  with  these,  time  was  necessary  to  bring  back  the 
fact  of  success,  diffuse  through  the  country  the  informa- 
tion of  which  he  had  such  a  wealth,  and  so  lead  up  to 
legislative  and  diplomatic  action.  Three  years  were  not 
an  unduly  long  time  to  bring  the  desired  and  acceptable 
end  in  the  Oregon  Treaty  of  1846.  For  the  peaceable, 
honorable,  and  satisfactory  character  of  that  end  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain  are  preeminently  in- 
debted to  Marcus  Whitman  and  Daniel  Webster. 

1  Senate  Document  31,  of  41st  Congress,  3rd  Session,  Feb.  9, 1871, 
p.  23. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

TWO    HUNDRED    WAGONS    FOR   OREGON. 

DOCTOR  WHITMAN  was  the  envoy  extraordinary  of 
circumstances  to  Washington,  to  quiet  the  two  govern- 
ments. When  he  came  up  the  Santa  Fe  trail  on  that 
wonderful  journey  through  southern  Colorado  and  cen- 
tral Kansas  and  struck  the  lone  cabins  on  the  Missouri 
borders,  he  started  rumors  of  a  great  emigrant  caravan 
to  Oregon  in  the  spring.  He  assured  the  scattered  set- 
tlers of  a  wagon  road  to  the  Columbia.  This,  he  said, 
was  his  fourth  trip  to  and  from  those  waters,  —  includ- 
ing his  first  round  trip  of  exploration  to  the  rendezvous. 
He  had  taken  his  wife  over,  and  she,  with  other  white 
women,  were  there  among  friendly  Indians,  awaiting  his 
return  with  a  great  immigration,  the  approaching  au- 
tumn. The  fears  and  difficulties  and  dangers  were  manu- 
factured, he  assured  them,  at  Fort  Hall,  and  for  a  pur- 
pose. Emigrants  had  only  to  pass  by,  attending  to  their 
own  business.  An  escort  of  friendly  Cayuses  would 
meet  them  beyond  Fort  Hall.  He  would  meet  the  com- 
pany at  Westport  in  June.  Would  they  be  ready  ? 

The  Doctor  both  uttered  and  printed  his  plans,  and 
his  words  went  up  and  down  that  border-land  like  bugle 
notes  when  hunters  and  hounds  open  the  chase,  or  as 
the  fiery  cross  traversed  the  Scottish  highlands,  when 
the  clans  were  to  be  suddenly  gathered.  For  a  citizen 
of  the  old  East  to  understand  the  temper  of  the  region  to 


240   OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

which  he  spoke  one  needs  to  read  the  life  of  Boone  and 
Crockett,  or  walk  along  behind  the  ox-cart  of  Putnam 
those  months  when  it  was  hauling  the  family  and  civili- 
zation from  the  Connecticut  to  the  Ohio,  or  stand  in  1796 
and  see  "  the  nearly  one  thousand  flat-boats,  or  '  broad- 
horns,'  as  they  were  called,  pass  Marietta,  laden  with 
emigrants  on  their  way  to  the  more  attractive  regions  of 
southwestern  Ohio."  1 

That  families  comfortably  settled  should  break  up, 
load  a  few  camp-articles  into  a  stout  wagon,  leave  all 
cabin  smoke  behind,  and  plunge  into  unknown  wilds  a 
thousand  or  two  thousand  miles,  is  a  large  fact  in  our 
history  and  a  question  in  social  philosophy. 

A  letter  written  in  1868,  by  one  Zachrey,  a  Texan, 
who  went  with  "Whitman  to  Oregon,  will  serve  to  illus- 
trate how  widely  that  border-call  went  up  and  down  the 
great  valley.  One  of  Whitman's  circulars  found  its  way 
to  the  Zachrey  home  in  Texas,  while  others  went  up 
the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  and  wherever  steamers  were 
then  running  on  the  fourteen  thousand  miles  of  navi- 
gable rivers  between  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Rocky 
Mountains. 

"  Early  in  June  you  will  meet  me,"  this  was  the  flying 
notice  as  Dr.  Whitman  came  up  the  Santa  Fe  trail,  those 
January  and  February  days,  into  St.  Louis.  I  shall  never 
forget  the  appearance  and  ardor  of  the  man  as  our  inter- 
view, enjoyed  under  the  same  roof  for  twenty-four  hours 
in  St.  Louis,  then  impressed  me.  Only  the  enthusiasm 
and  indomitable  will  of  Columbus,  as  he  went  from 
court  to  court,  fired  with  the  passion  of  his  one  purpose, 
ca-n  serve  me  as  a  good  illustration. 

Having  posted  the  government  to  the  latest  date  on 
1  Walker's  History  of  Athens  Co.,  Ohio,  p.  Ill,  Cincinnati,  1869. 


TWO  HUNDRED    WAGONS  FOR  OREGON.      241 

Oregon  affairs,  and  having  obtained  assurance  that  new- 
negotiations  should  not  commit  the  United  States  on  the 
question  till  he  could  take  over  his  caravan  of  emigrants 
and  report,  Dr.  Whitman  felt  that  he  had  gained  the 
end  of  his  mission  and  made  sure  of  Oregon. 

Before  turning  his  face  westward  again  he  made  a 
flying  call  at  the  missionary  rooms  in  Boston,  where  he 
had  been  commissioned  seven  years  before.  The  offi- 
cers, so  the  histories  of  Oregon  say,  did  not  measure 
the  scope  of  his  national  ride,  and  the  interview  was 
much  as  when  Eliab  questioned  another  man  who  was 
too  far  ahead  of  the  times  to  be  understood:  "Why 
earnest  thou  down  hither?  and  with  whom  hastthou  left 
those  few  sheep  in  the  wilderness  ?  "  David  and  the 
Doctor  answered  in  due  time,  and  quite  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  people. 

"  Instead  of  being  received  and  treated  as  his  labors 
justly  entitled  him  to  be,"  says  Mr.  Gray,  "  he  met  the 
cold,  calculating  rebuke  for  unreasonable  expenses,  and 
for  dangers  incurred,  without  orders  or  instructions  or 
permission  from  the  mission  to  come  to  the  States.  .  .  . 
For  economical  and  prudential  reasons,  the  Board  re- 
ceived him  coldly  and  rebuked  him  for  his  presence  be- 
fore them,  causing  a  chill  in  his  warm  and  generous 
heart,  and  a  sense  of  unmerited  rebuke  from  those  who 
should  have  been  most  willing  to  listen  to  all  his  state- 
ments, and  most  cordial  and  ready  to  sustain  him  in  his 
herculean  labors." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Mr.  Gray  went  out  with 
Dr.  Whitman  in  1836,  and  was  his  associate  in  the  Ore- 
gon mission,  as  the  secular  agent  of  the  Board.  He 
therefore  knew  this  matter  personally  from  the  Doctor, 
who  had  assumed  to  take  a  commission  from  circum- 
stances and  providences  to  do  this  grand  work. 


242    OREGON:    THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

It  should  be  said  in  apology  for  both  parties  at  this 
late  day,  that,  at  that  time,  the  Oregon  mission  and  its 
managing  Board  were  wide  asunder  geographically,  and 
as  widely  separated  in  knowledge  of  the  condition  of 
affairs.  Dr.  Whitman  seems  to  have  presumed  that  his 
seven  years'  residence  on  the  northwest  coast  would  gain 
him  a  trustful  hearing.  But  his  knowledge  gave  him 
the  disadvantage  of  a  position  and  plans  too  advanced 
—  not  an  uncommon  mishap  to  eminent  leaders.  Cole- 
ridge says  of  Milton  :  "He  strode  so  far  before  his  con- 
temporaries as  to  dwarf  himself  by  the  distance." 

Years  afterward,  when  tardy  times  and  men  at  the 
rear  caught  up  with  men  on  the  ground,  their  mistake 
was  discovered,  as  one  of  the  officers  writes :  "  It  was  not 
simply  an  American  question,  however;  it  was  at  the 
same  time  a  Protestant  question."  Quite  recently  justice 
has  been  rendered  to  Dr.  Whitman  in  "  The  Ely  Vol- 
ume." In  providing  by  will  for  the  expenses  of  this  work 
the  honorable  donor  expressed  the  wish  that  it  detail 
some  of  the  "  instances  where  the  direct  influence  of  mis- 
sionaries has  controlled  and  hopefully  shaped  the  desti- 
nies of  communities  and  states."  The  compiler  says : 
"  Perhaps  no  event  in  the  history  of  missions  will  better 
illustrate  this  than  the  way  in  which  Oregon  and  our 
whole  northern  Pacific  coast  was  saved  to  the  United 
States."  This  was  the  very  idea  and  work  of  Dr.  Whit- 
man, yet  quite  in  contrast  with  some  of  his  experiences 
when  he  was  achieving  the  grand  enterprise.  The  credit 
is  due,  not  to  missions  so  much  as  to  the  total  and  sensible 
independence  of  the  Doctor.  But  the  misfortune  of 
foresight  befell  him,  and  he  worked  and  waited. 

With  some  qualifications  the  aphorism  of  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson  must  be  accepted :  "  To  be  great  is  to 


TWO  HUNDRED    WAGONS  FOR  OREGON.      243 

be  misunderstood."  So  men  pay  the  penalty  of  true 
nobility  of  plan  and  action,  do  their  work,  and  wait  for 
the  acknowledgments  of  following  generations. 

The  company  of  emigrants  seeking  Oregon  under  Dr. 
Whitman  was  gathered  at  "V^estport  on  the  Missouri. 
This  had  long  been  the  point  of  last  departure  from  the 
settlements,  as  adventurous  companies  set  forth  on  the 
Santa  Fe,  or  California,  or  Oregon  trail.  Kansas  City 
and  its  radiating  network  of  railways,  so  like  a  huge 
spider's  web  hanging  in  the  dew,  has  quite  obscured  that 
hopeful  little  town  near  by,  and  the  locomotives  have 
moved  the  point  of  departure  for  prairie  wagons  a  thou- 
sand miles,  more  or  less,  to  the  front. 

In  the  early  part  of  that  leafy,  blushing  June,  1843, 
the  rattling,  clustering  wagons,  with  their  dingy  white 
tops,  and  the  muscular,  bronzed,  and  wideawake  fam- 
ilies that  hung  fast  and  loose  about  them,  made  a  per- 
fect gala-day  at  Westport.  Some  of  them  may  have 
had  as  many  new  homes  and  plans  of  life  as  the  Che- 
rokees,  who  are  now  living  under  their  sixteenth  treaty 
with  government  beyond  the  great  river.  How  strange 
that  the  Indians  do  not  settle  down  and  make  good 
citizens  !  Texas  was  there  with  Whitman  three  years 
before  it  was  in  the  Union,  and  no  doubt  other  south- 
western states,  as  well  as  Illinois,  Indiana,  and  the  far- 
ther east.  I  remember  how,  in  those  years,  caravans 
crossed  at  St.  Louis,  and  struck  for  the  interior,  their 
long  line  of  canoe  wagons,  with  high  bow  and  stern, 
creeping  to  the  ferry  through  Illinois  Town,  and  passing 
over,  and  winding  up  the  streets. 

Those  were  red-letter  days  for  ferryman  Wiggins 
and  that  unconscious  play  of  his  thumb  and  finger  on 
picayunes  aud  levees.  One  of  the  wagous  would  be 


244      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

a  curiosity  to-day,  with  the  heads  of  women  and  chil- 
dren at  every  loop  and  rent  of  the  canvas,  and  kettles, 
cows,  dogs,  and  sundries  made  fast  behind.  Father 
and  sons,  lank  and  swaying,  stroll  awkwardly  on  either 
side,  each  carrying  the  inevitable  rifle.  This  phase  of 
life  has  never  been  seen  except  in  the  United  States. 
There  were  several  in  the  company  at  Westport,  noble 
and  conspicuous  afterward  in  Oregon,  who  had  purposed 
to  go  before,  and  some  had  even  started,  whom  the  fears 
and  adroit  impossibilities  manufactured  at  Fort  Hall  had 
turned  back. 

When  the  Doctor  started  out  from  the  Missouri,  two 
hundred  wagons  fell  into  line.  Many  of  the  men  had 
property,  yet  it  often  happens  that  such  wanderers  have 
little  with  them,  while  they  have  left  nothing  behind. 
They  are  wealthy  only  in  children,  and  are  easy  and  af- 
fluent, financially,  only  in  expectations.  The  weather, 
roads,  fare,  mishaps  —  it  is  all  well  —  nothing  disturbs 
the  even  tenor  of  their  prairie  ways,  for  they  are  "  going 
West."  Rent,  taxes  and  laws,  markets,  store  bills,  and 
the  fashions,  Wall  Street  prices  and  Washington  news, 
—  of  all  these  annoyances  of  the  higher  civilization  they 
are  in  blissful  ignorance.  At  the  same  time  there  are, 
iuside  and  outside  of  those  wagons,  the  noble  germs  and 
best  elements  of  American  life.  It  was  the  same  when 
the  pioneers  took  the  Ohio,  and  cut  up  the  northwest 
territory  into  magnificent  states,  and  added  Kentucky 
and  Missouri  and  Iowa  and  others  to  the  Union. 

For  fourscore  years  such  families  and  wagons  have 
been  carrying  our  frontier  forward  sixteen  miles  a  year 
annually,  along  its  entire  line  from  the  English  boun- 
dary to  the  Mexican,  a  movement  which  has  made  the 
annual  area  of  new  settlements  equal  to  two  and  a  half 


TWO  HUNDRED   WAGONS  FOR  OREGON.      245 

states  as  large  as  Massachusetts.  Just  at  this  time, 
1843,  one  section  of  the  long  frontier  wave  was  comb- 
ing into  a  breaker,  and  throwing  its  spray  against  and 
over  the  Rocky  Mountains.  In  the  growth  and  spread 
of  a  people,  and  in  the  occupation  of  wild  land  by  tilled 
fields  and  neighborhoods  and  highways,  the  world  never 
saw  so  sublime  a  sight.  The  table  lands  of  Asia  have  in 
prehistoric  times  tilted  toward  Europe,  and  thrown  for- 
ward human  masses,  but  not  a  civilization  ;  and  great 
armies  have  cut  their  way  through  frontiers  with  scythe 
chariots ;  but  the  American  scythe  chariots  are  the  reap- 
ers, and  they  win  battles  for  progress  and  humanity  on 
our  vast  wheatfields.  Gladstone  well  says:  "While 
we  [Great  Britain]  have  been  advancing  with  porten- 
tous celerity,  America  is  passing  us  by  in  the  canter." 

It  was  some  days  after  leaving  Westport  before  they 
fell  into  good  marching  order,  with  guides,  and  a  high- 
way construction  gang;  the  women  and  children  and 
supplies  were  placed  midway,  and  scouts  and  hunters 
ranged  wildly  loose.  The  long  undulating  line  drew 
its  slow  length  over  the  Kansas  prairies,  and  the  even- 
ing camp-fires  were  a  wonder  to  Indians  and  buffalo 
and  yelping  coyotes. 

When  well  under  way  Dr.  Whitman  was  all  along 
the  line,  like  a  commanding  general.  "  Through  that 
great  emigration,"  says  Mr.  Spalding,  "  during  that 
whole  summer,  the  Doctor  was  their  everywhere  pres- 
ent angel  of  mercy,  ministering  to  the  sick,  helping  the 
weary,  encouraging  the  wavering,  cheering  the  mothers, 
mending  wagons,  setting  broken  bones,  hunting  stray 
oxen,  climbing  precipices,  now  in  the  rear,  now  in  the 
centre,  now  at  the  front,  in  the  rivers  looking  out  fords 
through  the  quicksands,  in  the  desert  looking  out  water, 


246    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

iu  the  dark  mountains  looking  out  passes  at  noontide 
or  midnight,  as  though  those  were  his  own  children,  and 
those  wagons  and  those  flocks  were  his  own  property."  l 

There  lie  before  me  many  letters  from  men  in  that 
company,  kindly  furnished  by  Mr.  Gray,  the  historian 
of  Oregon,  to  whom  I  am  otherwise  greatly  indebted  in 
preparing  this  volume.  They  are  from  the  Honorable 
Jesse  Applegate,  Robert  Newell,  and  J.  W.  Nesmith. 
A  few  passages  quoted  here  and  there  will  give  us  a 
good  idea  of  the  journey.  The  night  encampment  had 
much  to  do  with  the  safety  of  the  expedition.  The 
Doctor  usually  selected  the  spot  in  advance,  and  laid 
out  the  ground  in  a  circle,  and  as  the  train  came  up  he 
located  the  first  wagon  on  the  circle.  "  Each  wagon 
follows  in  its  track,  the  rear  closing  on  the  front,  until 
its  tongue  and  ox-chains  will  perfectly  reach  from  one 
to  the  other,  and  the  hindermost  wagon  of  the  train 
always  precisely  closes  the  gateway."  Thus  a  fortifi- 
cation was  made  of  the  wagons,  and  the  animals  were 
turned  loose  to  feed. 

"  His  great  experience  and  indomitable  energy  were 
of  priceless  value  to  the  migrating  column.  His  con- 
stant advice,  which  we  knew  was  based  upon  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  road  before  us,  was,  '  travel,  travel,  travel ; 
nothing  else  will  take  you  to  the  end  of  your  journey ; 
nothing  is  wise  that  does  not  help  you  along  ;  nothing 
is  good  for  you  that  causes  a  moment's  delay.' 

"  All  able  to  bear  arms  in  the  party  have  been 
formed  into  three  companies,  and  each  of  these  into 
four  watches."  Each  company  took  the  watch  every 
third  night.  After  the  evening  meal  there  was  a  social 

1  Senate  Document  37,  of  41st  Congress,  3d  Session,  February  9, 
1841,  p.  22. 


TWO  HUNDRED   WAGONS  FOR  OREGON.      247 

time  within  the  circle,  and  all  were  merry.  The  chil- 
dren frolicked,  the  young  people  enjoyed  the  violiu 
and  flute  and  dance  and  song,  while  the  older  re- 
counted incidents  of  the  twenty  miles' travel,  and  fore- 
cast the  morrow  and  anticipated  Oregon.  The  Doctor 
and  the  main  guide  sit  aloof  in  grave  consultation  till 
they  have  "  finished  their  confidential  interview,  and 
have  separated  for  the  night."  Slowly  the  prattle  and 
dance  and  violin  become  quiet;  lovers  there  in  the  wil- 
derness say  their  good-night;  the  guard  cries,  "Ten 
o'clock,  and  all  is  well ; "  the  smoldering  camp-fires  fall 
asleep  as  do  their  late  attendants,  and  the  stars  come  out 
and  watch  the  silent  camp,  even  as  they  watched  the 
tents  of  Abraham  when  emigrating  to  his  Oregon. 

No  very  serious  obstacles  were  encountered  till  the 
party  arrived  at  Fort  Hall,  1,323  miles  from  Westport. 
Here  the  Hudson  Bay  men  declared  further  progress 
with  the  wagons  to  be  impossible,  and,  to  convince  us, 
says  Mr.  Nesmith,  Captain  Grant  of  the  Fort  "  showed 
us  the  wagons  that  the  immigrants  of  the  preceding 
years  had  abandoned."  "With  these  were  the  agricul- 
tural tools  and  other  bulky  appliances  for  civilizing 
the  new  country. 

Serious  troubles  confronted  the  Doctor.  He  could 
feed  a  thousand  people  on  the  plains,  ford  the  rivers, 
and  force  the  mountains,  but  to  run  the  gauntlet  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  post,  whose  interests  were  so  deeply  in- 
volved in  stopping  him,  was  another  labor.  While  he 
was  here  and  there,  up  and  down  the  long  line,  in  a 
varied  superintendence,  the  head  of  the  column  reached 
Fort  Hall.  The  numbers  in  this  caravan  were  formid- 
able, and  the  more  so,  that  they  were  made  up  of  fam- 
ilies who  were  evidently  anticipating  homes  and  civili- 


248   OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

zation  on  the  Pacific  slope.  This  would  damage  a  fur- 
bearing  country  and  strengthen  American  ambitions 
and  claims  for  the  territory.  A  desperate  effort  must 
be  made  to  scatter,  or  divert,  or  turn  back  the  company. 

When  Dr.  Whitman  came  up  to  the  head  of  the  col- 
umn he  found  that  the  old  arts  had  been  applied,  and 
wiih  no  little  success.  It  would  be  Indians,  if  they  went 
on  with  that  valuable  retinue,  and  captive  women  and 
children  ;  and  it  would  be  sickness  and  abandoned  wag- 
ons and  goods,  and  then  starvation,  and  all  that.  But 
when  he  spoke  to  them  of  his  own  experiences  on  that 
route  through  several  trips,  and  then  of  the  interest  the 
fur-men  had  to  keep  them  back,  and  then  appealed  to 
their  generous  and  honorable  feelings  to  trust  him  'till 
he  had  at  least  once  failed  them,  they  rallied  with  en- 
thusiasm and  moved  on.  So  far  as  appears  he  did  not 
lose  a  man  or  a  wagon  at  the  Fort.  What  aided  much 
to  this  result  was  the  presence  of  a  large  body  of  Cayuse 
Indians,  who  had  taken  this  journey  of  hundreds  of  miles 
to  meet  their  old  teacher  aud  lead  him  back  safely  to 
their  mountain  homes. 

As  this  expedition  turned  the  balance  for  Oregon,  so 
Fort  Hall  was  the  pivotal  point.  This  Fort  Hall,  on 
Lewis,  or  Snake  River,  about  one  hundred  miles  north 
of  Salt  Lake  City,  was  originally  an  American  trading- 
post,  built  by  N.  J.  Wyeth,  but  the  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany crowded  him  off  by  the  many  monopolizing  and 
outraging  means  which  a  wilderness  life  made  possible. 
Many  'of  his  traders  and  trappers  were  scattered  wide ; 
some  of  them  were  killed,  and  his  business  generally  was 
ruined.  At  this  point  many  immigrant  companies  had 
been  intimidated  and  broken  up,  and  so  Fort  Hall  served 
as  a  cover  to  Oregon,  just  as  a  battery  at  the  mouth  of 
a  river  protects  the  inland  city  on  its  banks. 


TWO  HUNDRED    WAGONS  FOR  OREGON.      249 

Here  the  post  men  had  made  the  fatal  mistake  of  al- 
lowing the  "  old  wagon  "  of  the  Doctor  to  go  through, 
seven  years  before.  Now  two  hundred  followed  it.  In 
later  days,  when  the  spirit  was  aroused  for  "  the  whole 
of  Oregon  or  war,"  the  question  was  raised  whether  it 
was  to  be  taken  under  the  walls  of  Quebec  or  on  the 
Columbia.  Neither  was  the  place.  Oregon  was  taken 
at  Fort  Hall.  For  it  will  be  seen  that  from  this  time 
the  grand  result  in  the  Oregon  case  was  no  longer  an 
open  and  doubtful  issue ;  only  details  and  minor  adjust- 
ments required  attention. 

It  is  reported  that  President  Tyler  promised  an  escort 
under  Fremont  to  Dr.  Whitman,  in  leading  out  his  emi- 
grant company.  This  may  have  been  so,  but  more  or 
less  traditional  matter  clusters  about  that  noted  inter- 
view, and  at  this  late  day  finds  its  way  into  print.  Noth- 
ing of  the  kind,  however,  was  done  ;  Fremont  followed 
Whitman.  In  the  preceding  year  Fremont  had  led  an 
exploring  and  scientific  expedition  from  Kansas  City  to 
the  South  Pass,  250  miles  east  of  Fort  Hall.  The  last 
few  hundred  miles  of  this,  from  Fort  Laramie,  was  over 
the  old  trail  of  Whitman  and  Spalding  in  1336.  But 
the  two  expeditions  of  Whitman  and  Fremont  in  1843 
were  not  in  company.  They  both  left  the  same  point 
on  the  Missouri  about  the  same  time,  but  by  different 
routes.  Fremont  kept  to  the  south  of  the  Kansas,  bore 
away  almost  due  west  along  the  Smoky  Hills,  Republi- 
can and  Solomon  rivers  to  St.  Vrain's  Fort  on  the  South 
Plutte,  with  the  snowy  heights  of  the  mountains  before 
him,  and  possibly  Pike's  Peak  in  the  dim  southwest. 
Thence  he  made  a  detour  of  nineteen  days  to  Bent's 
Fort  and  Pueblo  on  the  Arkansas,  and  back  by  Colorado 
Springs,  and  near  to  the  coming  Denver,  to  St.  Vraiu's. 


250    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

Thence  he  went  over  the  mountains  for  Fort  Hall  by 
the  Cache  a  la  Poudre  River,  and  early  in  August  he 
struck  the  Sweet  Water,  and  his  route  of  the  preceding 
year,  which  was  the  ordinary  Oregon  trail.  Some  sci- 
entific delays,  and  a  visit  to  Salt  Lake,  delayed  the 
Lieutenant,  so  that  he  did  not  arrive  at  Fort  Hall  till 
September  19th. 

Dr.  Whitman  had  passed  this  point  of  intrigue  and  peril, 
and  the  grand  depot  of  wagons  and  farming  tools,  and 
was  at  his  old  home  on  the  Columbia,  in  October, 
—  not  many  days  after  Fremont  reached  the  Fort.  The 
very  day  that  the  head  of  the  Doctor's  army  corps  came 
upon  his  old  home  on  the  Columbia,  Fremont  was  emerg- 
ing from  the  canons  that  concentrate  around  Salt  Lake, 
and  was  hauling  his  rubber  boat  through  ooze  and  slime 
to  navigate,  first  of  white  men,  that  American  Dead  Sea. 
When,  therefore,  Doctor  Whitman  was  on  the  Columbia 
his  promised  "  escort "  was  on  Salt  Lake,  and  Lieutenant 
Fremont  arrived  at  Whitman's  Station  October  23d  — 
forty-nine  days  behind.  Fremont  has  been  justly  and 
honorably  called  The  Pathfinder,  but  in  this  instance 
he  followed  a  trail,  in  its  most  difficult  sections,  which 
"Whitman  had  beaten  out  by  several  trips,  and  that  had 
been  threaded  and  dared  by  American  women  seven 
years  before. 

I  have  spoken  of  those  calls  of  the  Doctor  for  emi- 
grants, as  he  came  up  the  Kansas  and  Missouri  borders 
in  his  marvelous  ride,  and  we  have  traced  the  eight  hun- 
dred and  seventy -five  on  their  way  with  him  thus  far  to- 
ward Oregon.  But  his  rallying  words  went  farther,  and 
started  more  for  the  Pacific  than  have  been  yet  indicated. 
We  shall  better  see  the  power  of  that  man,  and  his  grand 
and  saving  plan  for  Oregon,  if  we  fall  in  with  Fre- 


TWO  HUNDRED    WAGONS  FOR   OREGON.      251 

mont,  and  travel  and  camp  with  him,  while  he  finds  his 
way,  at  the  same  time,  into  that  farther  west.  For  the 
truth  is,  Whitman  stirred  all  the  wild  border,  and  the 
states  inside  of  it,  with  a  fascination  for  that  romantic, 
half  mythical  Oregon. 

Whitman  and  Fremont  took  different  directions  when 
they  left  Westport,  at  about  the  same  time.  On  the 
third  evening  out  Lieutenant  Fremont  encamped  among 
emigrant  wagons  freighted  with  families,  goods,  and 
farming  utensils  for  Upper  California.  "  For  four 
days,"  says  Fremont,  "  trains  of  wagons  were  almost 
constantly  in  sight,  giving  to  the  road  a  populous  arid 
animated  appearance."  This  was  on  the  trail  yet  com- 
mon to  California  and  Oregon.  When  Fremont  struck 
southerly  on  the  California  branch  he  saw  no  more  of 
this  till  he  returned  to  the  Oregon  trail  on  the  Sweet 
Water.  Now  he  finds  "  the  broad  smooth  highways 
where  the  numerous  heavy  wagons  of  the  emigrants  had 
entirely  beaten  and  crushed  the  artemisia  "  or  sage  bush. 
They  notice  graves  where  two  or  three  pilgrims  for  a 
better  land  had  passed  on  to  a  country  that  has  no  lands 
beyond.  By  and  by  they  find  a  cow  and  calf,  the  estrays 
of  some  emigrant  wagon,  and  they  enjoy  again  the  cof- 
fee of  civilization. 

And  again,  "Our  animals  fared  badly,  the  stock  of 
the  emigrants  having  razed  the  grass  as  completely  as 
if  we  were  again  in  the  midst  of  the  buffalo."  The  next 
night  he  "  encamped  with  a  family  of  emigrants,  two  men, 
women,  and  several  children,  and  six  or  eight  yoke  of 
cattle.  It  was  strange  to  see  one  family  traveling  along 
through  such  a  country,  so  remote  from  civilization." 
Some  time  afterward  "  the  edge  of  the  wood  for  sev- 
eral miles  along  the  river  was  dotted  with  the  white 


252    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

covers  of  emigrant  wagons,  collected  in  groups,  at  dif- 
ferent camps,  where  the  smoke  was  rising  lazily  from 
the  fires  around  which  the  women  were  occupied  in  pre- 
paring the  evening  meal,  and  the  children  playing  in 
the  grass,  and  herds  of  cattle  grazing  about  in  the  bot- 
tom. .  .  .  The  road  in  the  morning  presented  an  ani- 
mated appearance.  We  found  that  we  had  encamped 
near  a  large  party  of  emigrants,  and  a  few  miles  below 
another  party  was  already  in  motion." 

The  ordinary  supply  of  fresh  meat  by  the  chase  had 
failed  Fremont's  mountaineers,  following  thus  in  the 
footsteps  of  the  emigrant  bands.  "  There  had  been  very 
little  game  left  on  the  trail  of  the  populous  emigration." 
This  was  several  weeks  after  Doctor  Whitman  had  passed 
along.  Midway  in  the  long  and  charming  Indian  sum- 
mer of  that  region  the  Lieutenant  arrived  at  the  station 
of  Dr.  Whitman,  finding  here  and  there  clearings,  and 
corn  and  potato  fields  and  rude  houses,  finished  and 
unfinished,  and  other  evidences  of  settlement  and  civiliz- 
ation. 

The  most,  if  not  all  the  emigrants  thus  overtaken  and 
passed  by  Fremont  were  probably  stirred  to  the  expedi- 
tion by  the  tocsin  and  rally  of  that  man  of  purpose  and 
furs  and  frosted  fingers.  Too  late  for  the  company  who 
were  hurried  off  from  the  Missouri  under  the  motto, 
"  travel,  travel,  travel,"  they  followed  as  best  they  might. 
Others  may  have  come,  as  the  Texan  Zachrey,  from  very 
remote  points,  and  made  their  twenty  miles  a  day,  like 
Whitman,  and  still  failed  of  his  company,  though  volun- 
teers for  that  army  of  occupation,  because  of  his  grand 
border-call  to  save  Oregon.  Some  of  them  went  over 
the  Cascade  Mountains  late,  in  sleet  and  ice  and  threat- 
ening winter,  famished  and  jaded,  but  they  found  open 


TWO  HUNDRED   WAGONS  FOR  OREGON.      253 

doors  and  warm  fires  and  hearty  tables  at  Waiilatpu  on 
the  Walla  Walla,  as  only  a  frontier  housewife  can  spread 
them. 

In  these  details  of  a  most  romantic  history  lying 
among  the  germs  of  the  Republic  on  the  Pacific  sido 
an  amusing  coincidence  occasionally  appears.  In  the 
"  Edinburgh  Review  "  for  July,  1843,  there  is  this  state- 
ment :  "  One  thing  strikes  us  forcibly.  However  the 
political  question  between  England  and  America,  as  to 
the  ownership  of  Oregon,  may  be  decided,  Oregon  will 
never  be  colonized  overland  from  the  Eastern  States. 
.  .  .  With  those  natural  obstacles  between,  we  cannot 
but  imagine  that  the  world  must  assume  a  new  face  be- 
fore the  American  wagons  make  plain  the  road  to  the 
Columbia  as  they  have  to  the  Ohio."  While  this  portly 
and  scholarly  quarterly  was  following  the  English  lan- 
guage over  the  world,  and  its  fresh-cut  leaves  were  re- 
vealing these  magisterial  dicta  in  libraries  and  private 
circles,  in  those  identical  July  days  the  two  hundred 
wagons  of  Marcus  Whitman  were  doing  this  impossible 
thing,  and  the  fourteen  of  Lieutenant  Fremont  were 
closely  following. 

Doctor  Whitman  set  foot  in  stirrup  at  his  door  for 
Washington,  October  3,  1842,  and  dismounted  there 
again  early  in  October,  1843.  Eleven  months  that  he- 
roic wife  and  the  mission  band  waited  for  the  first  word 
or  rumor  while  he  twice  crossed  the  continent.  They 
heard  the  clatter  of  his  horse's  feet  die  away,  as  he  rode 
off  up  the  Walla  Walla,  and  knew  afterwards  only  that 
the  mountains  received  him  and  their  winter  awaited 
him.  What  months  of  waiting  for  them,  and  of  work- 
ing for  him  !  Again  the  clatter  of  a  horse's  feet  is  heard 
on  the  Walla  Walla,  and  the  rider  leaves  stirrup  for  the 


254     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

threshold  of  his  cabin  door.  There  followed  him  down 
the  Cascade  Mountains  and  into  that  splendid  valley,  in 
little  companies,  and  in  long,  weary  file,  jaded  and  bat- 
tered, and  mended  after  mountain  style,  two  hundred 
emigrant  wagons.  They  emptied  their  families  here  and 
there,  the  women  and  children  ;  and  scattered  all  about 
were  cattle  and  dogs ;  while  lank  backwoodsmen,  with 
the  inevitable  rifle,  lounged  and  strolled.  And  they 
continued  to  arrive  even  after  the  light  snows  of  the 
country  have  co'me.  It  was  the  army  of  occupation  for 
Oregon. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

THE   PEOPLE   DISCUSS    THE    OREGON    QUESTION. 

IN  old  colony  times  few  questions  of  public  concern 
were  settled  without  a  town  meeting,  and  that  meeting 
was  formidable.  In  revolutionary  days  the  Royalists 
could  take  Bunker  Hill  and  other  noted  fields  of  rebel- 
lion, but  they  could  not  conquer  Faneuil  Hall  and  the  Old 
South  meeting-house.  The  orderly  gatherings  and  free 
discussion  of  important  interests  by  the  people  were  too 
much  for  Great  Britain.  When  the  people  took  up  the 
Oregon  question,  gathered  in  the  facts  and  talked  them 
over  together,  it  was  soon  settled. 

In  the  United  States  general  legislation  follows  the 
people,  and  their  will,  previously  ascertained,  takes  the 
form  of  law.  So  in  this  matter  of  Oregon,  the  people 
led  off  and  Congress  followed.  Prior  to  the  negotiation 
of  the  Ashburton  Treaty  Congress  was  almost  totally 
inactive  as  to  the  use  and  occupation  of  that  territory. 
It  was  tardy  in  beginning,  dilatory  in  progress,  and  nega- 
tive in  producing  results.  It  contented  itself  with  the 
policy  of  joint  occupation,  inaugurated  in  1818.  The 
efforts  of  Mr.  Linn  to  close  this  policy  in  1839  and 
1841  were  a  failure,  and  while  the  treaty  was  pending 
soon  after,  it  was  of  course  only  courteous  in  Congress 
to  be  quiet  on  any  boundary  question. 

It  was  a  disappointment  to  many  that  the  treaty  made 
no  reference  to  the  northwest,  but  the  people  acquiesced 


256   OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

when  they  understood  the  policy  which  had  been  adopted 
and  the  necessity  for  the  omission.  Able  and  protracted 
debates  in  Congress  followed  the  submission  of  the  doc- 
ument to  them,  and  the  discussion  was  reported,  and 
then  renewed  by  the  people.  In  this  way  much  infor- 
mation concerning  Oregon  was  scattered  abroad,  when 
it  was  much  needed.  Thus  both  knowledge  and  inter- 
est were  developed,  which  must  take  place  before  tho 
rights  of  the  United  States  in  Oregon  could  be  fully  and 
safely  asserted. 

In  his  message  of  December,  1842,  President  Tyler 
remarked,  that  "  the  tide  of  population  which  has  re- 
claimed what  was  so  lately  an  unbroken  wilderness  in  more 
contiguous  regions,  is  preparing  to  flow  over  those  vast 
districts  which  stretch  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  In  advance  of  the  acquirement  of  indi- 
vidual rights  to  those  lands  sound  policy  dictates  that 
every  effort  should  be  resorted  to  by  the  two  govern- 
ments to  settle  their  respective  claims." 

In  his  message  covering  the  Ashburton  Treaty  the 
President  had  already  said  that  it  was  impracticable  to 
extend  the  negotiations  involved  in  the  treaty  so  as  to 
include  the  northwest.  Therefore  Oregon  still  rep- 
resented a  great  and  growing  international  interest,  and 
Mr.  Linn  of  the  Senate,  early  after  the  December  mes- 
sage of  1842,  introduced  a  call  for  information  why 
Oregon  was  not  included  in  the  treaty,  and  also  a  bill 
for  the  occupation  and  settlement  of  the  territory.  A 
popular  outside  pressure  carried  discussions  on  these 
propositions  to  an  engrossing  extent  for  weeks.  The 
bill  was  barely  carried  in  the  upper  and  then  lost  in 
the  lower  house.  This  was  only  fifteen  days  before 
the  arrival  of  Dr.  Whitman  with  his  important  informa. 


THE  PEOPLE  DISCUSS  THE   QUESTION.      257 

tion.  It  will  be  seen  how  timely  his  advent  was,  and  of 
how  much  worth  his  facts  and  plans  and  assurance, 
while  an  uninformed  Congress  stood  so  evenly  balanced 
on  the  Oregon  issue.  The  call  of  Mr.  Linn  for  infor- 
mation was  answered  from  an  unexpected  quarter,  an<J 
more  amply  than  was  possible  from  the  portfolio  of  the 
Secretary  of  State.  It  is  very  rare  that  coincidences 
have  so  combined,  and  adaptations  conspired  in  matters 
of  moment  to  the  state. 

Congress  closed  on  the  day  following  his  arrival,  and 
official  public  action  rested  till  another  December.  But 
the  people  took  up  the  question.  The  growth  of  knowl- 
edge and  of  opinion  which  he  had  started  went  on.  The 
Cabinet  knew  his  purposes  and  plans  and  his  rigid  con- 
fidence in  their  success,  and  so  they  shaped  delays  and 
waited  to  hear  again  from  Marcus  Whitman.  During 
the  interval  of  warm  months  and  quite  as  warm  pop- 
ular discussion,  the  public  became  sensitive  under  the 
rumor  that  if  the  bill  for  occupation,  lost  in  the  House, 
had  become  a  law,  England  would  have  regarded  it  as 
equivalent  to  a  declaration  of  war. 

Congress  convened  in  December,  1843,  stimulated  by 
the  people  to  action.  On  the  8th  of  January  news 
came  from  Oregon  that  Dr.  Whitman  had  made  a  com- 
plete success  of  his  emigration  scheme.  The  same  day 
a  resolution  in  the  Senate  called  for  the  instructions  to 
our  minister  to  England,  and  all  correspondence  on  the 
subject.  The  resolution  did  not  pass,  but  a  similar  one 
in  the  House  did  pass  two  days  later.  So  these  stirring 
incidents  made  those  times  lively. 

A  prevalent  opinion,  and  one  thoroughly  confirmed 
by  the  Doctor,  increased  the  popular  ardor.  The  people 
had  the  conviction  that  the  English  were  reaping  all  the 
17 


258    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

advantages  of  the  "  joint  occupation "  by  pressing  an 
unscrupulous  monopoly,  and  excluding  all  American 
traders  and  trappers  as  far  east  as  Fort  Hall.  Parties 
like  Wyeth's  had  been  broken  up,  and  the  scattered 
numbers  were  telling  their  griefs  through  the  states. 
The  news  from  Dr.  Whitman  spread  wildly,  and  hun- 
dreds were  roused  to  take  the  trail  of  his  emigrant  cara- 
van and  make  homes  and  fortunes  on  the  Pacific. 

It  was,  therefore,  quite  a  matter  of  course,  as  popular 
impulses  go,  when  they  seek  the  form  of  law  by  Con- 
gress, that  action  should  be  taken  there  to  terminate  the 
joint  occupation  by  giving  the  required  notice  of  twelve 
months.  Mr.  Buchanan  urged  this  with  extreme  ear- 
nestness, and  was  among  the  first  to  put  into  prominence 
the  claim  for  all  of  the  primitive  Oregon  up  to  54°  40'. 
Others  made  speeches  similar  in  tone  and  extent  of  de- 
mand. The  spirit  of  those  urging  the  notice  was  daring 
and  at  times  belligerent,  and  produced  the  ordinary  ef- 
fe'cts  on  the  populace  of  such  appeals.  Unkindly  feelings 
were  kindled  against  Great  Britain  by  limited  statesmen 
and  demagogues  ;  and  the  Stamp  Act,  and  tea  tax,  and 
Yorktown,  and  Lundy's  Lane  were  paraded  in  and  out 
of  the  halls  of  national  deliberation.  The  people  were 
put  on  their  guard  lest  they  be  despoiled  of  valuable 
domain  in  the  northwest,  as  it  was  said  they  had  been 
in  the  northeast.  For  they  would  not  understand  that 
some  partisan  Englishmen  felt  that  England  had  been 
outdone  and  despoiled  in  the  Ashburton  Treaty  quite  as 
much  as  some  Americans  felt  the  reverse.  Indeed,  in 
Parliament  the  treaty  was  assailed  as  violently  as  in 
Congress. 

The  feeling  mounted  high  as  to  the  extent  of  the 
American  claims  compared  with  the  English  rights. 


THE  PEOPLE  DTSCUSS  THE   QUESTION.      259 

Even  the  cool  and  conservative  "Winthrop  was  willing 
to  say  :  "  For  myself,  certainly,  I  believe  that  we  have 
as  good  a  title  to  the  whole  twelve  degrees  of  latitude," 
i.  e.,  up  to  54°  40'.  Mr.  Benton,  in  presenting  some  peti- 
tions for  the  settlement  of  the  question,  was  for  taking 
Oregon  at  once,  and  letting  consequences  follow  as  they 
would.  "  Let  the  emigrants  go  on  and  carry  their  rifles. 
We  want  thirty  thousand  rifles  in  the  valley  of  the  Ore- 
gon ;  they  will  make  all  quiet  there,  in  the  event  of  a 
war  with  Great  Britain  for  the  dominion  of  that  coun- 
try. The  war,  if  it  come,  will  not  be  topical ;  it  will 
not  be  confined  to  Oregon,  but  will  embrace  the  posses- 
sions of  the  two  powers  throughout  the  globe.  Thirty 
thousand  rifles  on  the  Oregon  will  annihilate  the  Hudson 
Bay  Company  and  drive  them  off  our  continent  and 
quiet  the  Indians." 

To  all  this  tone  of  feeling  and  tide  of  words,  favored 
by  many,  which  might  have  cost  the  nation  much  treas- 
ure and  blood,  but  a  poor  show  of  honor  or  acres  in  re- 
turn, Mr.  Choate  well  expressed  the  sentiments  of  the 
party  for  delay  and  peace. 

"In  my  judgment  this  notion  of  a  national  enmity 
of  feeling  towards  Great  Britain  belongs  to  a  past  age  of 
our  history.  My  younger  countrymen  are  not  uncon- 
scious of  it.  That  generation  in  whose  opinions  and 
feelings  the  actions  and  the  destinies  of  the  next  age 
are  enfolded,  as  the  tree  in  the  germ,  do  not  at  all  com- 
prehend your  meaning,  nor  your  fears,  nor  your  regrets. 
We  are  born  to  happier  feelings.  We  look  on  England 
as  we  do  on  France.  We  look  on  them  from  our  new 
world,  not  unrenowned,  yet  a  new  world  still,  and  the 
blood  mounts  to  our  cheeks  ;  our  eyes  swim ;  our  voices 
are  stiHed  with  emulousuess  of  so  much  glory ;  their  tro- 


260      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

phies  will  not  let  us  sleep.  But  there  is  no  hatred  at 
all,  no  hatred ;  all  for  honor,  nothing  for  hate,  We 
have,  we  can  have,  no  barbarian  memory  of  wrongs  for 
which  brave  men  have  made  the  last  expiation  to  the 
brave.  .  »  °  Do  not  say  that  theirs  is  an  unfortunate, 
morbid,  un practicable,  popular  temper  on  the  subject, 
which  you  desire  to  resist,  but  are  afraid  you  shall  not 
be  able  to  resist.  If  you  will  answer  for  the  politicians, 
I  think  I  will  venture  to  answer  for  the  people." 

This  speech  for  peace,  as  the  clarion  of  a  herald  be- 
tween two  hostile  armies,  was  well  followed  by  the  prac- 
tical suggestions  of  others.  It  was  urged  that  negotia- 
tions for  a  friendly  solution  of  difficulties  were  about  to 
open ;  that  immigration  was  rapidly  strengthening  our 
prospects  ;  that  delay  was  gain  ;  that  to  precipitate  a  war 
on  such  an  issue,  with  its  costs  of  treasure  and  horrors, 
would  be  unpardonable  in  the  authors,  if  they  had  not 
first  exhausted  all  reasonable  endeavors  in  the  line  of 
peace. 

In  his  annual  message  in  December,  1844,  President 
Tyler  announced  that  since  the  close  of  the  last  session 
negotiations  had  been  formally  opened  for  the  settlement 
of  the  Oregon  question,  and  it  was  understood  that  a 
special  envoy  was  awaited  from  Great  Britain.  Pak- 
enham  arrived  at  Washington  in  February,  1845.  Still 
the  war  spirit  did  not  suddenly  abate,  and  even  the  mes- 
sage renewed  the  old  and  rejected  proposals  for  a  chain 
of  military  posts  from  the  Missouri  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia,  and  for  the  extension  of  United  States  laws 
over  American  citizens  in  Oregon.  But  neither  was 
done,  and  a  grave  silence,  full  of  promises  of  good,  pre- 
vailed at  Washington  for  a  twelvemonth  following,  down 
to  the  first  annual  message  of  President  Polk,  Decen> 


THE  PEOPLE  DISCUSS  THE   QUESTION.      261 

ber,  1845.  Much  indeed  was  done  then,  but  little  of 
the  work  appeared  to  the  public,  except  as  the  subject 
was  touched  now  and  then  incidentally  in  Congress. 
Meanwhile  the  politicians  were  not  inactive  with  the 
voting  people.  The  press,  the  caucus,  and  the  conven- 
tion fed  the  American  appetite  on  Oregon.  It  was  too 
good  a  plank  for  the  makers  of  platforms  to  overlook  in 
the  exciting  canvass  for  a  new  chief  magistrate. 

Let  us  here  pause  and  see  to  what  dates  and  stages 
of  growth  our  Oregon  question  has  come.  Through 
January,  1843,  Congress  was  mainly  discussing  the 
policy  of  occupying  that  territory  with  our  citizens 
and  laws.  The  debate  opened  the  whole  question  of 
title,  treaty,  and  joint  occupation,  American  traders  and 
English  monopoly.  The  strong  men  of  the  land,  Linn, 
Calhoun,  Beuton,  Choate,  Woodbury,  McDuffie,  Ber- 
rien  and  Rives,  naturally  came  to  the  front  when  the 
Pacific  was  put  in  danger.  The  milder  plans  were 
adopted,  and  affairs  were  left  to  run  on  languidly  with 
Great  Britain. 

During  that  same  January  Whitman  was  struggling 
over  the  mountains  and  across  the  plains  to  execute  his 
plan  for  saving  Oregon.  During  the  first  quarter  of 
1844  a  similar  struggle  with  similar  results  was  waged 
on  the  floor  of  Congress.  Meanwhile  the  Hon.  Mr. 
Pakenham  arrived  as  minister  plenipotentiary  to  nego- 
tiate the  affair,  and  Mr.  Buchanan  is  associated  with 
him  for  the  United  States.  In  December  Mr.  Tyler 
presented  his  last  annual  message.  In  this  he  revived 
the  military  schemes  and  also  recommended  the  exten- 
sion of  United  States  laws  over  the  territory.  But  the 
subject  had  a  quiet  sleep  iu  Washington  till  Mr.  Polk's 
administration  opened  it  in  March,  1845.  Up  to  this 


262      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

date  three  points  had  been  gained  :  the  people  had  been 
drawn  into  a  discussion  of  the  subject,  and  with  much 
intelligence  ;  emigration  in  large  numbers  was  following 
Whitman's  "  old  wagon  ; "  and  plenipotentiaries  for  the 
two  governments  were  in  Washington  discussing  the 
question  for  a  settlement.  - .  • 

The  English  were  not  claiming  exclusive  sovereignty 
over  this  territory,  equal  in  area  to  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  five  and  a  half  times,  but  only  the  rights  of  joint 
occupation.  The  United  States  claimed  to  51°  as  cover- 
ing all  land  drained  by  the  Columbia  and  belonging  to 
the  United  States  by  discovery.  Also,  as  successor  to 
Spain  on  that  coast,  the  United  States  held  that  their 
title  as  high  as  60°  was  superior  to  that  of  England  or  of 
any  other  power.  This  claim  was  advanced  early  in  the 
controversy,  1824.  Mr.  Rush,  who  entered  the  claim, 
afterward  proposed  49°,  and  the  English  Commissioners 
proposed  from  the  mountains  to  the  Columbia,  and  thence 
down  it  to  the  sea.  Both  failed  in  1824.  Two  years 
later  the  two  parties  renewed  these  proposals,  but  only 
to  be  mutually  rejected.  Mr.  Gallatin,  however,  gave 
notice  that  his  government  would  not  hereafter  feel 
bound  to  any  line  previously  offered,  "  but  would  con- 
sider itself  at  liberty, to  contend  for  the  full  extent  of 
the  claims  of  the  United  States."  Such  was  the  con- 
dition of  the  case  even  down  to  the  first  annual  mes- 
sage of  President  Polk,  December,  1845. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

IMMIGRANTS    SETTLE    THE    OREGON    QUESTION. 

"  WHEN  the  4th  of  September,  1843,  saw  the  rear  of 
the  Doctor's  caravan  of  nearly  two  hundred  wagons 
emerge  from  the  western  shades  of  the  Blue  Mountains 
upon  the  plains  of  the  Columbia,  the  greatest  work  was 
finished  ever  accomplished  by  one  man  for  Oregon  on 
this  coast."  This  testimony  of  Mr.  Spaldiug  is  true 
concerning  his  old  companion  in  travel.  It  was  neces- 
sary now  only  to  report  this  success  of  the  expedition 
along  the  frontier  and  among  the  friends  of  the  party  of 
nearly  nine  hundred,  to  stir  the  border  heart  for  wilder 
fields.  The  news  soon  spread,  and  the  passion  to  follow 
became  infectious.  In  the  saddle,  by  the  camp-fires  and 
cabin  hearths,  and  around  the  stores  and  gossipy  corners, 
the  expedition  was  discussed,  and  a  western  fever  set  in 
that  took  off  great  numbers  the  next  year.  Greenhow 
estimates  the  American  population  of  Oregon  at  the 
close  of  1844  at  more  than  3,000.  Mr.  White,  the  In- 
dian agent  for  government,  sets  it  at  about  4,000,  while 
Hiues  says  :  "In  1845  it  increased  to  nearly  3,000  souls, 
with  some  2,000  or  3,000  head  of  cattle."  Through  the 
whole  west  there  was  a  warmth  of  anticipation  and  a 
growing  zeal  for  the  settlement  and  possession  of  Or- 
egon. 

Perhaps  no  one  expressed  better  these  feelings  than 
Mr.  Owen,  in  the  House  of  Representatives  from  Indiana : 


264    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

"  Oregon  is  our  land  of  promise.  Oregon  is  our  land  of 
destination.  '  The  finger  of  nature '  —  such  were  once 
the  words  of  the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  [J.  Q. 
Adams]  in  regard  to  this  country,  —  '  points  that  way,' 
2,000  Americans  are  already  indwellers  of  her  valleys, 
5,000  more  .  .  .  will  have  crossed  the  mountains  before 
another  year  rolls  round."  Mr.  Semple,  senator  from 
Illinois,  thought  that  10,000  would  go  over  the  next 
year. 

These  speeches  were  made  in  January,  1844 ;  and 
they  were  not  very  visionary,  since  in  1846  the  white 
population  of  Oregon  was  about  12,000.  Probably  all 
of  these,  except  1,000,  were  American  immigrants.  All 
this  must  have  been  exceedingly  interesting  to  Dr. 
Whitman,  as  be  saw  the  long  lines  of  white  wagons  and 
the  thousands  of  cattle  come  down  the  Cascade  Moun- 
tains, crowning  the  heroism  of  his  ride,  and  also  of  his 
"old  wagon."  Like  many  a  radical  that  wagon  was 
ahead  of  the  times  and  dishonored,  but  finally  honor 
overtook  it. 

For  the  sake  of  any  Eastern  reader  who  is  burdened 
with  a  provincial  skepticism  about  this  marvelous  emi- 
gration over  our  border,  a  few  data  of  crossings  of  the 
Missouri  may  be  reported  for  1846.  At  St.  Joseph's, 
Elizabethtown,  Iowa  Point,  Council  Bluffs,  and  the 
Nishwabatona,  271  wagons  passed  over  for  Oregon  and 
California.  Allowing  five  persons  to  a  wagon  there  were 
about  1,350,  and  their  live  stock  may  be  estimated  at 
5,000  head.  At  Independence  187  wagons  crossed. 
Here  are  nearly  2,000  persons  at  these  six  crossings 
headed  for  the  Pacific  that  season.  Yet  the  oracular 
"  Edinburgh  Review,"  deep  in  the  interests  of  the  Plud- 
son  Bay  Company,  is  confident  that  "  Oregon  never  will 


IMMIGRANTS  SETTLE  THE    QUESTION.       265 

be  colonized  overland  from  the  Eastern  states."  "  Who- 
ever is  to  be  the  future  owner  of  Oregon,  its  people  will 
come  from  Europe." 

The  mistake  is  not,  perhaps,  strange,  since  the  narrow 
compass  of  England  can  but  poorly  appreciate  or  allow 
for  long  journeys  and  vast  rivers  and  mountain  ranges, 
with  which  the  American  is  necessarily  familiar,  and 
takes  to  easily.  When  all  the  twenty  realms  of  Eu- 
rope can  be  laid  down  in  the  United  States,  and  broad 
margins  be  left  here  for  sections  of  Asia,  we  must 
not  expect  an  insular  English  quarterly  to  define  our 
capacities  for  emigrating  travel.  Some  twenty  years 
later,  when  emigration  to  Oregon  arid  California  was  at 
high  tide,  one  of  our  college  presidents,  coming  in  over 
the  border,  met  in  one  day,  he  informed  me,  eight  hun- 
dred and  nineteen  yoke  of  emigrant  oxen,  hauling  their 
wagons  and  carts  "  out  west." 

As  already  stated,  while  Doctor  Whitman  was  in  the 
East  the  first  steps  for  a  civil  government  by  Americans 
in  Oregon  were  taken  at  the  "  wolf  meeting."  An  arti- 
cle in  the  first  section  of  the  original  code  for  that  terri- 
tory is  an  index  to  the  tone  and  purpose  of  the  people : 
"  Religion,  morality,  and  knowledge  being  necessary  to 
good  government  and  the  happiness  of  mankind,  schools 
and  the  means  of  education  shall  forever  be  encouraged." 
A  state  house  was  built,  and  so  like  the  foundation  of 
things,  as  that  it  might  well  satisfy  the  most  economical. 
"  Posts  set  upright,  one  end  in  the  ground,  grooved  on 
two  sides,  and  filled  in  with  poles  and  split  timber,  such 
as  would  be  suitable  for  fence  rails,  with  plates  and  poles 
across  the  top.  Rafters  and  horizontal  poles  held  the 
cedar  bark,  which  was  used  instead  of  shingles  for  cov- 
ering. It  was  twenty  by  forty  feet.  At  one  eud  some 


266    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

puncheons  were  put  up  for  a  platform  for  the  president ; 
some  poles  and  slabs  were  placed  around  for  seats ;  three 
planks  one  foot  wide  and  about  twelve  leet  long,  placed 
upon  a  sort  of  stake  platform  for  a  table,  for  the  use  of 
the  legislative  committee  and  the  clerks."  The  Pil- 
grim or  Jamestown  Fathers  could  not  have  been  more 
primitive  in  their  first  halls  of  justice.  But  equity  be- 
tween man  and  man  is  not  necessarily  a  matter  of  archi- 
tecture, upholstery  and  the  woolsack. 

This  government  was  set  up  while  Whitman  was  at 
the  head  of  his  two  hundred  wagons,  and  it  set  aside,  so 
far  as  the  Americans  were  concerned,  the  royal  one 
transferred  from  Canada.  Soon  after  it  was  inaugu- 
rated, it  was  strengthened  by  the  arrival  of  the  Doctor 
and  his  great  immigration.  This  foreclosed  the  Oregon 
question,  leaving  for  the  future  only  the  dry  and  tedious 
details  of  diplomacy  and  Congress. 

When  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  saw  an  American 
government  over  their  game  preserve,  and  the  invasion 
of  it  by  that  long  cavalcade,  and  heard  that  Oregon  was 
not  touched  in  the  late  treaty,  they  changed  their  tactics, 
and  renewed  their  struggles  to  save  their  monopoly  on 
the  Pacific.  All  Americans  who  proposed  to  settle  in 
the  territory  were  denied  employment  or  supplies  by 
them.  All  who  could  be  persuaded  to  remove  to  Cali- 
fornia —  as  yet  a  Mexican  province  —  were  provided 
with  a  generous  outfit,  and  also  with  notes  payable  in 
California,  which,  it  was  understood,  were  never  to  be 
collected  of  those  who  took  them  under  pledge  to  leave 
Oregon.  And  this  policy  to  deplete  Oregon  of  Ameri- 
cans was  pursued  till  the  final  adjustment  of  the  question 
by  the  two  governments.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  the  Com- 
pany were  at  the  same  time  following  up  most  stringent 


IMMIGRANTS  SETTLE   THE   QUESTION.      267 

measures  to  keep  back  immigration  to  their  own  side. 
When,  in  1857,  the  time  drew  near  for  the  Company  to 
renew  its  lease  of  the  Indian  territories  —  wilderness 
on  the  west  of  Rupert's  Land  —  the  subject  came  before 
a  select  committee  of  Parliament,  and  the  "  Westmin- 
ster Review  "  of  July,  1867,  thus  reports  the  testimony 
of  one  Isbister,  a  native  and  employee  of  the  Com- 
pany : 

"  He  confirms  the  statement  that  all  further  settlement 
was  opposed  by  the  government,  all  trade  practically 
stopped,  since  those  who  held  land  were  prohibited  from 
importing  goods  from  any  port  but  London,  from  any 
part  of  the  port  of  London  except  the  warehouses  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company,  by  any  ships  except  their  ves- 
sels, or  into  any  port  in  Rupert's  Land  except  York 
Factory  in  Hudson  Bay,  where  they  were  charged  a  duty 
of  five  per  cent.  .  .  .  In  1845  the  same  body  passed  a 
resolution  imposing  twelve  and  a  half  per  cent,  on  all  the 
goods  landed  at  York  Factory  for  the  Red  River  Col- 
ony. ...  A  very  decided  amendment  proposed  by  Mr. 
Gladstone,  recommending  that  the  country  capable  of 
colonization  should  be  forthwith  withdrawn  from  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Company,  was  negatived  by  the  cast- 
ing vote  of  the  chairman." 

If  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  wished  to  retain  Oregon 
for  England,  their  policy  was  spoiled  by  more  than  a 
fallacy ;  it  had  in  it  a  fatuity.  The  Company  was  thus 
working,  also,  in  violent  conflict  with  the  interests  of  the 
government  that  incorporated  it.  The  case  is  an  emphatic 
illustration  of  a  corporate  monopoly  that  can  outgrow  and 
override  the  government  that  incorporated  it.  It  is  a 
case  worthy  of  study  by  American  legislators. 

In  this  connection  it  should  be  stated  that  five  years 


268    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

before,  the  intention  of  the  Company  had  been  declared 
to  intrust  the  Indians  to  the  Jesuits  for  opposition  to 
the  Americans,  and  to  arm  their  eight  hundred  half- 
breeds  and  employees  against  any  military  force  from  the 
States.  They  had  stationed  a  ship  of  war  at  Vancouver, 
and  after  the  provisional  government  had  been  inaugu- 
rated they  strengthened  that  fort  with  bastions,  and  fur- 
nished the  Indians  with  military  supplies.  Meantime 
the  scattering  of  immigrants  at  Fort  Hall,  the  charges 
to  them  there  for  flour  at  forty  dollars  the  barrel,  and 
other  supplies  in  proportion,  and  the  introduction  of  col- 
onists from  the  Red  River,  must  not  be  forgotten. 

The  outlines  of  American  government  gradually  took 
on  form  and  expansion  and  strength,  and,  though  they 
had  no  criminals  to  imprison,  the  legislative  committee 
of  1844  recommended  the  building  of  a  jail,  with  the  re- 
mark :  "  We  are  assured  that  it  is  better  policy  to  have 
the  building  standing  without  a  tenant,  than  a  tenant 
without  the  building."  The  committee  also  suggested 
provision  for  the  insane.  Quite  after  the  spirit  of  the 
colonial  legislatures  of  early  times,  they  expressed  the 
hope  "  that  Oregon,  by  the  special  aid  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence, may  set  an  unprecedented  example  to  the  world 
of  industry  morality,  and  virtue,"  and  by  "  a  diligent 
attention  to  agriculture,  arts,  and  literature,  attain  an 
elevation  as  conspicuous  as  any  state  or  power  on  the 
continent." 

While  the  government  was  making  this  general  prog- 
ress the  Indian  agent  reported  the  suppression  of  the 
liquor  trade  among  them,  their  fine  crops,  the  export 
of  wheat,  beaver,  salmon  and  lumber,  and  the  import 
from  the  Sandwich  Islands  of  sugar,  molasses,  tea,  and 
coffee,  orderly  and  decorous  proceedings  in  the  courts, 


IMMIGRANTS  SETTLE  THE   QUESTION.       269 

hopeful  Indian  farming,  small  Catholic  schools,  and  a 
JMethodist  institution,  where  much  proficiency  had  been 
shown  in  the  primary  branches.  In  the  year  following, 
1845,  the  agent  says  :  "  Moral  and  religious  influence, 
I  regret  to  say,  is  waning,  yet  it  is  gratifying  to  observe 
an  increasing  interest  upon  the  subject  of  schools  and 
education,  and  I  am  happy  to  say  we  have  now  eleven 
schools  this  side  the  mountains,  most  of  them  small,  to 
be  sure,  but  they  are  exerting  a  salutary  and  beneficial 
influence." 

The  intelligent  American  will  see  here  those  germs 
of  a  territorial  organization,  and  the  foreshadowing  of  a 
state,  such  as  have  enriched  and  enlarged  our  borders 
from  colonial  times.  The  interest  shown  in  education, 
morals,  and  religion  are  quite  a  repetition  of  the  territo- 
rial history  of  "  the  Ohio." 

The  American  principle  of  rule  by  the  people  and  by 
majority  vote  had  come  into  Oregon,  and  the  minority 
paid  it  deference.  The  boast  of  Mr.  Dunn  is  seen  to  be 
baseless  :  "  The  Americans,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
missionary  and  agricultural  establishments,  have  scarcely 
any  possession  or  hold  on  the  country.  .  .  .  They  have 
not  an  inch  of  land  from  California  to  the  Pole,  from 
the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific,  to  which  they  have 
undisputed  right,  and  not  one  single  trading-post  or 
station." 

As  the  whole  of  Oregon  was  in  question  between  the 
two  governments  no  one  had  "  undisputed  right"  to  a 
cabin  lot  even,  and  if  the  Americans  had  no  trading-posts 
they  had  family  homes  of  unmixed  blood,  and  schools 
and  court  room  and  ballot-boxes. 

The  theory  of  both  nations,  title  by  colonial  and  do- 
mestic occupation,  had  been  put  into  practice.  Few  men 


270   OREGON:    THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

appreciated  this  theory  better,  or  more  aptly  urged  its 
practice,  than  the  Honorable  Rufus  Choate.  Against 
vindictive  feelings  toward  Great  Britain,  or  schemes  of 
demagogues,  or  sectional  ambitious,  or  the  indiscreet  ar- 
dor and  impulses  of  real  patriotism  which  would  have 
precipitated  war,  he  urged  immigration  from  the  states 
as  the  wisest  and  most  speedy  means  to  gain  the  title. 
With  his  own  inimitable  grace  of  thought  and  language 
he  spoke  in  the  Senate  in  1844  against  the  resolution  to 
close  the  arrangement  for  joint  occupation  :  — 

"  Oregon,  which  a  noiseless  and  growing  current  of 
agricultural  immigration  was  filling  with  hands  and  hearts 
the  fittest  to  defend  it  —  the  noiseless,  innumerous  move- 
ment of  our  nation  westward.  .  .  .  We  have  spread 
to  the  Alleghauies,  we  have  topped  them,  we  have  dif- 
fused ourselves  over  the  imperial  valley  beyond  ;  we  have 
crossed  the  Father  of  Rivers  ;  the  granite  and  ponderous 
gates  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  have  opened,  and  we 
stand  in  sight  of  the  great  sea.  .  .  .  Go  on  with  your  ne- 
gotiation and  emigration.  Are  not  the  rifles  and  the 
wheat  growing  together,  side  by  side  ?  Will  it  not  be 
easy,  when  the  inevitable  hour  comes,  to  beat  back 
plowshares  and  pruuing-hooks  into  their  original  forms 
of  instruments  of  death  ?  Alas,  that  that  trade  is  so  easy 
to  learn  and  so  hard  to  forget !  "  Quite  in  contrast  with 
the  war  spirit  and  speech  of  Colonel  Benton :  "  We 
want  thirty  thousand  rifles  in  the  valley  of  the  Oregon." 1 

So  the  point  was  carried  by  immigrants  rather  than 
soldiers.  The  United  States  found  to  be  true  what  the 
world  knows,  that  plows  hold  a  country  better  than  steel- 
traps  ;  and  Great  Britain  learned  that  the  law  of  nations 
in  assigning  a  new  country  is  apt  to  follow  the  track  of 
i  Debates  in  Congress,  vol.  xv.  142,  and  preceding. 


IMMIGRANTS  SETTLE   THE    QUESTION.        271 

immigrant  wagons.  Stopping  them  at  Fort  Hall  was 
but  a  temporary  expedient,  and  when  two  hundred 
passed  by,  as  cars  pass  a  station,  and  went  over  peace- 
fully into  the  valley  of  the  Columbia,  the  end  of  contro- 
versy was  brought  very  near  ;  the  army  of  occupation 
had  moved  into  Oregon,  and  it  remained  only  to  talk 
over  the  conclusion,  to  draw  up  and  sign  the  papers. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 
"FIFTY-FOUR  FORTY,  OR  FIGHT." 

PRESIDENT  POLK  devotes  one  fifth  of  his  long  mes- 
sage of  December  2,  1845,  to  the  Oregon  question.  In 
it  he  rehearses  the  attempts  at  settlement,  states  the 
offers  on  both  sides  and  their  mutual  rejection,  and  de- 
clares that  there  has  been  not  only  a  total  failure  as  to 
settlement,  but  no  progress  toward  it.  He  informs 
Congress  that  "  the  proposition  of  compromise,  which 
had  been  made  and  rejected,  was,  by  my  direction,  sub- 
sequently withdrawn,  and  our  title  to  the  whole  Oregon 
territory  [from  42°  to  54°  40']  asserted,  and  as  it  is 
believed,  maintained  by  irrefragable  facts  and  argu- 
ments." 

Mr.  Polk  recommended  that  the  joint  occupation  be 
terminated  by  the  stipulated  notice,  that  the  civil  and 
criminal  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  be  extended 
over  the  whole  of  Oregon,  and  that  a  line  of  stockades 
and  military  posts  be  established  along  the  route  from 
the  states  to  the  Pacific,  together  with  an  adequate 
force  of  mounted  rifles,  for  the  encouragement  and  pro- 
tection of  immigration.  As  early  as  1824  Mr.  Monroe 
had  recommended  the  establishment  of  one  post  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Columbia.  Should  the  notice  be  given, 
he  thought  the  government  should  put  itself  in  a  posi- 
tion to  maintain  firmly  its  rights  in  that  territory  at  the 
expiration  of  the  year  of  notice.  Hence  the  partisan 
watchword ;  "  Fifty -four  Forty,  or  Fight." 


"FIFTY-FOUR   FORTY,  OR  FIGHT."  273 

A  very  grave  issue  was  thus  put  before  the  American 
people  ;  indeed,  few  had  equaled  it.  For  more  than 
six  mouths  it  engrossed  Congress,  and  the  whole  coun- 
try was  agitated  by  it.  Had  the  hopeful  condition  of 
things  in  Oregon  been  better  understood,  so  much  ex- 
citement would  have  been  impossible.  But  then  that 
country  was  farther  from  Washington  fourfold  than 
China  to-day,  and  the  germs  of  a  new  state  for  the  Union 
were  not  obvious  even  to  observers.  The  ardor  spread 
into  all  parts  of  the  land  and  pervaded  all  departments 
of  American  life.  What  Spald ing's  half  pint  of  seed 
wheat  had  become  to  the  broad  fields  of  the  Columbia, 
the  purpose  and  plan  of  Whitman  had  become  in  the 
States.  Only  war  was  no  part  of  his  plan  and  was  in 
no  proper  way  necessary  to  its  success.  That  was  the 
tares  that  would  possibly  work  in  among  the  wheat. 
War  with  England  would  probably  have  stayed  the 
Mexican  war,  then  imminent,  or  given  different  issues 
to  it. 

England  had  her  MacNamara  scheme  to  plant  an 
Irish  colony  in  California,  bring  about  the  revolt  of 
that  province  from  Mexico,  and  put  it  under  an  Eng- 
lish protectorate.  Peace  with  England  and  war  with 
Mexico  enabled  the  United  States  to  spoil  that  plot  and 
take  California  herself.  Fre'mont,  with  more  energy 
than  red  tape,  wrought  great  things  in  California  for 
North  America.  Quite  naturally  Alaska  followed  Cali- 
fornia to  the  United  States,  and  now  our  domain  on  the 
Pacific  coast  runs  6,411  miles  to  England's  450.  Fight- 
ing for  54°  40'  would,  perhaps,  have  lost  us  the  whole. 

It  was  a  wonderful  battle  of  fact,  argument,  and  pa- 
triotism in  Congress,  and  the  men  were  worthy  of  the 
struggle,  now  grandly  historic.  When  we  name  a  few 
18 


274    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

on  both  sides,  the  whole  are  suggested  —  Crittenden, 
Benton,  McDuffie,  Webster,  and  Calhoun,  Adams,  Cass, 
Clioate,  and  Winthrop.  The  grandeur  and  gravity  of 
that  high  debate  were  enhanced  by  the  facts,  above 
hinted,  that  during  those  same  months  Texas  came  into 
the  Union  and  the  Mexican  war  with  it. 

Following  close  on  the  message  of  the  President,  and 
quite  naturally,  there  arose  a  long  discussion  on  the  na- 
tional defenses,  since,  as  Mr.  Crittenden  announced, 
"  war  might  now  be  looked  upon  as  almost  inevitable." 
Resolutions  were  offered  affirming  Oregon  to  be  part 
and  parcel  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States  from 
42°  to  54°  40',  and  that  notice  should  be  given  at  once 
to  terminate  the  joint  occupation  of  it.  A  key  to  the 
tone  and  ardor  of  the  House  may  be  found  in  a  single 
remark  there  :  "  No  doubts  now  remain  in  the  minds  of 
American  statesmen,  that  the  government  of  the  United 
States  holds  a  clear  and  unquestionable  title  to  the  whole 
of  the  Oregon  territory."  There  were  not  wanting  Hot- 
spurs to  echo  this  sentiment. 

McDuffie  would  "  rather  make  that  territory  the  grave 
of  his  fellow-citizens,  and  color  the  soil  with  their  blood, 
than  to  surrender  one  inch."  At  this  time  the  Hudson 
Bay  Company  had  about  thirty  trading  posts  in  the  ter- 
ritory, which  were  really  forts  and  defensible  in  frontier 
war.  The  United  States  had  about  7,000  citizens  in 
the  same  country.  Mr.  Yancey  considered  the  question 
of  notice  a  very  grave  one.  "  This  notice,  if  given, 
would  be  a  war  move.  It  is  argued  as  such.  Mr.  Polk 
deems  it  as  such.  In  itself  it  is  such  a  move.  What, 
then,  is  the  object  ?  I  am  told,  to  obtain  all  of  Oregon. 
I,  too,  go  for  all  of  Oregon.  I  go  for  it  up  to  54°  40'." 
But  at  the  close  of  a  war  he  thought  "  Oregon  would 


"FIFTY-FOUR  FORTY,  OR  FIGHT."  275 

be  found  in  the  hands  of  England,  and  Canada  would 
be  iu  our  possession.  .  .  .  We  are  on  the  point  of  pur- 
chasing the  magnificent  territory  of  California,  which, 
with  Oregon,  would  give  us  a  breadth  of  Pacific  coast 
suited  to  the  grandeur  and  commercial  importance  of 
our  Republic.  All  this  would  be  blighted  by  a  war. 
California  would  be  lost  to  us.  A  debt  of  five  hundred 
millions  would  be  imposed  upon  the  country." 

Yet  Douglas  of  Illinois  denied  this,  and  argued  that 
the  notice  would  not  lead  to  war ;  while  Jefferson  Davis 
urged  peace  measures  as  the  surest  way  to  secure  all  our 
rights.  As  the  great  debate  progressed  in  the  high 
councils  of  the  nation,  strong  hostility  to  Great  Britain 
was  developed,  and  one  senator,  Westcott,  went  so  far 
as  to  say  :  "  I  have  no  feelings  of  friendliness  for  Great 
Britain,  none  whatever.  ...  I  saw  the  torch  which 
wrapped  the  Capitol  in  flames  applied  by  the  hand  of 
the  incendiary.  ...  If  war  should  once  be  declared,  my 
whole  soul  and  my  whole  strength  will  be  exerted  on 
the  side  of  my  country." 

The  question  of  notice  was  discussed  with  increasing 
ardor  in  the  House,  with  necessary  intermissions,  for 
more  than  forty  days,  and  then  it  was  carried  by  the 
decided  vote  of  163  to  54.  The  depth  of  honest  convic- 
tion, and  at  the  same  time  opposition  of  view  may  be  seen 
in  the  fact  that  John  Quincy  Adams  voted  in  the  affirm- 
ative, and  Robert  C.  Winthrop  in  the  negative,  both 
from  the  same  state,  and  of  high  international  renown. 

In  the  Senate  the  struggle  was  much  longer.  There 
it  was  asserted  that  England  would  not  dare  to  carry  the 
controversy  to  the  extreme,  since,  "  the  first  act  of  our 
government  in  case  of  war  would  be  to  expel  the  British 
power  from  all  her  possessions  on  this  continent."  If 


276     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

the  view  of  Senator  Clayton  may  be  admitted,  the  cer- 
tainty of  war  and  its  fearful  devastations  were  already 
assumed  facts,  for  he  said  :  "  The  apprehension  of  war 
has  decreased  and  almost  paralyzed  the  business  of  the 
country.  Already  the  capital  of  traders  is  withdrawing 
itself  into  chests  and  drawers  and  old  stockings."  In- 
surance increased  on  commerce,  and  returning  vessels 
remained  inactive  at  the  wharves. 

Mr.  Benton  affirmed  that  negotiations  had  made  no 
progress  toward  settlement  since  the  Treaty  of  Ghent, 
and  he  agreed  with  the  President  in  the  measures  pro- 
posed. He  had  been  clear  against  joint  occupation  for 
twenty-eight  years,  as  "  a  treaty  of  unmixed  mischief  to 
the  United  States."  Joint  occupation  he  regarded  as  an 
anarchy, -an  impossibility,  and  an  absurdity,  and  that  to 
terminate  it  by  notice  would  be  a  peace  measure,  and  he 
would  adopt  it,  "  regardless  of  consequences." 

The  discussion  became  not  only  engrossing,  but  almost 
monopolizing,  for  threescore  bills  and  resolutions  were 
kept  waiting  on  the  calendar  for  their  time.  Crittenden 
moved  into  the  debate  at  a  late  hour,  seeing  no  need  of 
haste,  and  still  maintaining  that  the  difficulties  should  be 
kept  open  to  negotiations.  It  was  a  quieting  announce- 
ment of  personal  opinion,  when  he  said  :  "  A  majority 
is  decidedly  in  favor  of  preserving  the  peace  of  the  coun- 
try honorably,  and  of  settling  this  question  peaceably 
and  honorably,  by  compromise,  negotiation,  arbitration, 
or  by  some  other  mode,  known  and  recognized  among 
nations,  as  a  suitable  and  proper  and  honorable  mode  of 
settling  national  questions." 

Mr.  Webster,  fresh  from  the  Ashburton  Treaty,  long 
held  himself  aloof  from  the  great  debate,  while  yet  a 
watchful  listener.  When  he  broke  his  silence  he  did  it 


"FIFTY-FOUR  FORTY,  OR  FIGHT."  277 

briefly,  excusing  his  fewness  of  words  on  the  ground  that 
the  mutter  was  in  negotiation,  and  if  it  would  not  be  in- 
decorous for  Congress  to  discuss  it  during  negotiations, 
it  might  embarrass  the  administration  in  coming  to  the 
best  results.  But  he  early  foretold  the  way  iu  which 
the  difficulty  would  be  settled,  —  by  compromise,  —  and 
on  what  line,  —  the  forty-ninth. 

This  could  readily  be  foretold  by  him,  for  in  his  prep- 
arations to  meet  Lord  Ashburton,  and  in  the  profound 
historical  discussions  resulting  in  the  draft  of  that  treaty, 
he  traversed  the  ground  of  discoverers  and  explorers  and 
fur  traders  and  settlers,  as  well  as  all  conventions  and 
treaties  of  the  United  States,  and  of  other  nations,  perti- 
nent to  the  settlement  of  the  northwestern  boundary. 
All  this  information  he  had  made  available  at  the  time 
only  for  the  postponement  of  the  Oregon  question.  Now, 
in  full  possession  of  the  facts  of  right  in  the  case,  and 
knowing  the  American  lack  of  absolute  title  up  to  these 
high  pretensions,  he  enjoyed  a  dignified  silence  in  seeing 
partisan  debaters  strike  right  and  left  blindly  with  their 
"impregnable  facts  and  arguments  "  to  show  "  that  our 
title  to  the  whole  of  Oregon  is  clear  and  unquestionable." 
Some  of  the  speeches  do  not  show  knowledge  enough  of 
the  case  to  embarrass  the  purpose  or  the  eloquence  of 
the  speakers. 

Knowing  that  historical  data  and  treaties  were  want- 
ing to  settle  the  dispute  as  one  of  pure  rights,  and  know- 
ing, too,  that  on  all  exciting  and  popular  topics  a  certain 
amount  of  speech-making  is  irrepressible,  and  therefore 
indispensable,  he  waited  patiently  and  silently  for  the 
wagons  of  Whitman,  and.  the  compromising  pens  of  ne- 
gotiators. In  one  compact  sentence  Webster  put  him- 
self on  the  record  of  those  days :  "  I  say,  for  one,  that, 


278    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

in  my  opinion,  it  is  not  the  judgment  of  this  coun- 
try —  it  is  not  the  judgment  of  the  Senate  —  that  the 
government  of  the  United  States  should  run  the  hazard 
of  a  war  for  Oregon  by  renouncing,  as  no  longer  fit  for 
consideration,  the  proposition  of  adjustment  made  by 
this  government  thirty  years  ago,  and  repeated  in  the 
face  of  the  world." 

While  the  debate  was  in  progress,  and  in  one  of 
its  suspensions,  Mr.  Webster  did  one  thing,  indirectly, 
to  dignify  the  discussion,  and  lift  it  from  the  partisan 
and  provincial  into  the  national  and  international ;  he 
imparted  the  needed  thoughtfulness  and  emotion  to 
bring  the  conviction  that  a  question  of  territorial  rights 
on  a  treaty  line  of  a  thousand  miles,  and  of  war  between 
two  great  nations,  was  a  question  of  great  gravity.  The 
Ashburton  Treaty  had  been  made  a  target,  in  and  out  of 
Congress,  for  barbed  arrows  aimed  somewhat  at  it,  and 
somewhat  at  its  American  author.  For  two  or  three 
years  the  position  of  Mr.  Webster,  in  the  Cabinet  or 
in  private  life,  had  made  it  unfitting  for  him  to  notice 
these  attacks  publicly.  Now  in  the  Senate,  when  the 
same  great  question  of  boundary  was  before  that  body 
and  the  country,  he  deemed  it  both  useful  and  fitting  to 
make  a  defense  of  the  Ashburton  Treaty.  The  speech 
of  two  days  was  a  noble  apologetic  in  the  best  sense  of 
that  old  word,  and  while  it  set  forth  the  treaty  in  its  most 
important  relations  to  two  great  nations,  its  indirect  and 
powerful  influence  was  to  add  weighty  anxiety  to  the 
discussion  then  progressing  on  the  northwestern  boun- 
dary. 

More  and  more  daily,  as  the  weeks  of  this  great  de- 
bate went  by,  the  claims  and  the  hopes  of  peaceable  con- 
clusions gained  ground.  Calhoun  rose  to  the  dignity  of 


"FIFTY-FOUR  FORTY,   OR  FIGHT."          279 

the  occasion  and  to  the  solemnity  of  the  issue,  while  he 
urged  delay  and  peaceful  steps,  saying :  "  A  question  of 
greater  moment  never  has  been  presented  to  Congress 
from  the  days  of  the  Revolution  to  the  present." 

Mr.  Dayton  followed  in  the  line  of  thought  that 
finally  prevailed :  "  I  would  insist  that  things  remain 
exactly  as  they  are.  I  would  meet  Great  Britain  by  a 
practical  adoption  of  her  doctrine,  that  title  to  this  coun- 
try can  be  acquired  only  by  occupancy.  .  .  .  The  very 
question  to  be  settled  is,  What  is  our  own  ?  After  twen- 
ty-seven years  of  debate  we  are  no  nearer  a  conclusion 
than  we  were  at  first."  He,  too,  saw  the  end  only  in 
the  plan  of  Dr.  Whitman,  which  was  so  silently  and 
energetically  taking  possession  of  the  valley  of  the 
Columbia. 

When  the  debate  had  well  progressed,  Mr.  Evans 
boldly  foreshadowed  a  limitation  of  the  claims  of  the 
extremists,  and  so  narrowed  the  discussion  and  drew  it 
toward  the  close  :  "  I  will  not  sit  here  and  be  told,  over 
and  over  again,  that  our  title  to  54°  40'  is  so  clear,  so 
beyond  all  possibility  of  doubt  or  hesitation  that  he  who 
falters  in  maintaining  it  at  once  by  the  sword  is  recreant 
to  the  love  of  his  country." 

The  United  States  had  offered  49°  from  the  mountains 
to  the  sea,  and  Great  Britain  had  offered  49°  from  the 
mountains  to  the  Columbia,  and  by  it  to  the  sea.  Hence 
these  incisive  words  of  Mr.  Evans  cut  off  much  verbiage 
and  moved  the  controversy  far  along  from  rhetorical 
and  political  harangue  toward  an  intelligent  and  equit- 
able conclusion.  "What,  then,  is  the  actual  matter  in 
dispute  ?  It  is  only  that  strip  of  land  lying  between  the 
Columbia  River  and  the  latitude  of  fortv-mue,  bein(T  a 

«/ 

triangle,  extending  along  the  Pacific  two  hundred  miles 


280    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

and  from  the  river  to  the  ocean  three  hundred  and  fifty, 
containing  in  all,  according  to  my  computation,  about 
58,000  square  miles." 

Mr.  Calhoun  braced  these  views  and  hastened  the  con. 
elusion  by  compromise  in  one  of  his  best  speeches,  and 
Mr.  Webster  added  impetus  again  in  the  same  direction : 
"  One  who  has  observed  attentively,"  he  said,  "  what  has 
transpired  here  and  in  England  within  the  last  three 
months,  must,  I  think,  perceive  that  public  opinion,  in 
both  countries,  is  coming  to  a  conclusion  that  this  con- 
troversy ought  to  be  settled,  and  is  not  very  diverse,  in  the 
one  country  or  the  other,  as  to  the  general  basis  of  such 
settlement.  That  basis  is  the  offer  made  by  the  United 
States  to  England  in  1826." 

To  this  complexion  the  Oregon  question  had  come  in 
the  Senate  at  the  close  of  March,  1846,  and  the  end  seemed 
near.  However,  Mr.  Cass  renewed  the  struggle,  assert- 
ing that  the  just  claim  of  the  United  States  "  extended 
from  California  to  the  Russian  boundary,"  and  he  was 
disposed  to  press  that  claim,  at  the  peril  of  war,  which, 
he  thought,  had  been  too  gloomily  represented.  But  this 
created  only  another  verbal  eddy  in  the  majestic  current 
of  thought  and  speech  that  was  flowing  on  toward  the 
peaceful  sea.  As  the  debate  went  on  over  the  resolu- 
tion of  notice  to  quit  joint  occupation,  the  tendency  to 
compromise  on  49°  grew  more  and  more  evident,  and 
finally  this  appeared  inevitable.  It  remained  only  a 
question  of  time  based  on  the  calculation  how  much 
would  be  needed  to  deliver  prepared  speeches  and  work 
party  tactics  and  advance  personal  interests. 

The  resolution  of  notice  had  passed  the  House  Feb- 
ruary ninth,  and  came  at  once  to  the  Senate.  So  fully 
had  the  expectation  of  a  compromise  line  and  peace  pos- 


"FIFTY-FOUR  FORTY,   OR  FIGHT."          281 

sessed  the  Senate,  while  it  was  known  that  favorable  ne- 
gotiations were  going  on,  that  it  became  a  matter  unim- 
portant whether  the  vote  for  notice  passed  or  not.  But 
it  was  passed  April  23,  1846,  by  a  vote  of  forty-two  to 
ten,  with  two  important  amendments  :  a  strong  sugges- 
tion to  both  governments  that  the  differences  between 
them  be  adjusted  amicably  and  speedily,  and  that  the 
President  take  his  own  time  to  serve  the  notice,  and  give 
it  "  at  his  discretion." 

The  notice  was  thus  relieved  of  its  war  features,  and 
Congress  and  the  people  of  anxiety  about  war.  For 
men,  prominent  in  both  houses,  had  asserted  that  both 
nations  would  favor  a  compromise,  and  so  an  amicable 
adjustment.  In  the  confident  expectation  of  a  treaty  on 
this  basis,  anxiety  abated,  and  commerce,  trade,  and  the 
general  pursuits  of  peace  began  to  resume  their  old  cur- 
rents. 

For  four  months  and  twenty-one  days  after  its  intro- 
duction by  the  message  of  President  Polk  this  subject  had 
engrossed  Congress  and  the  country.  The  lack  of  knowl- 
edge concerning  it  made  the  progress  of  discussion  tardy 
and  warm.  For  it  was  a  tedious  and  trying  process,  in 
a  deliberative  body,  to  separate  the  traditions,  assertions, 
impressions,  and  patriotic  passions  from  the  real  facts  and 
rights  in  the  case.  But  the  great  debate  over  "  Fifty- 
four  Forty,  or  Fight "  ended  in  a  peaceful  and  mutually 
satisfactory  manner. 


CHAPTER  XXVIIL 

AT    LAST    A    TREATY. 

THE  first  article  in  this  treaty  reads  as  follows : 
"  From  the  point  on  the  forty-ninth  parallel  of  north 
latitude  where  the  boundary  laid  down  in  existing  trea- 
ties and  conventions  between  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain  terminates,  the  line  of  boundary  between 
the  territories  of  the  United  States  aud  those  of  her 
Britannic  Majesty  shall  be  continued  westward  along  the 
said  forty-ninth  parallel  of  north  latitude  to  the  middle 
of  the  channel  which  separates  the  continent  from  Van- 
couver's Island,  and  thence  southerly  through  the  middle 
of  the  said  channel,  and  of  Fuca's  Straits  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean :  Provided,  however,  that  the  navigation  of  the 
whole  of  the  said  channel  and  straits,  south  of  the  forty- 
ninth  parallel  of  north  latitude,  remain  free  and  open  to 
both  parties." 

For  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  to  write  and 
sign  that  article  required  fifty-four  years,  two  months, 
and  six  days.  On  the  llth  of  May,  1792,  Captain 
Robert  Gray,  of  Boston,  discovered  the  Columbia  River, 
and  so  established  a  United  States  title  to  the  country 
that  it  drains.  On  the  17th  of  July,  1846,  this  article 
having  been  previously  ratified  by  each  government,  was 
exchanged  at  London  between  the  two  governments, 
and  so  the  title  was  confirmed  to  the  United  States. 

When  the  two  governments  were  in  negotiation  as  to 


AT  LAST  A   TREATY.  283 

the  northern  boundary  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  in 
1807,  Mr.  Jefferson  wished  the  forty-ninth  parallel  to 
be  the  line  between  the  two,  "  as  far  as  their  said  re- 
spective territories  extend  in  that  direction."  The 
English  attack  on  the  Chesapeake  prevented  the  ratifi- 
cation of  this  projected  agreement.  After  the  war,  and 
in  the  Treaty  of  Ghent,  1814,  no  notice  was  paid  to  the 
boundary  west  of  the  Lake  of  the  Woods.  As  that 
treaty  provided  for  the  restoration  of  all  possessions 
taken  by  either  from  the  other  during  the  war,  Astoria 
was  claimed  by  the  United  States.  England  declined  to 
give  it  up,  as  never  having  been  a  national  possession  of 
the  United  States,  but  private  property,  and  sold,  as  an 
individual  enterprise,  to  English  subjects  before  its  for- 
mal capture.  It  was,  however,  restored  as  a  piece  of 
property,  but  the  question  of  national  title  and  sover- 
eignty in  it  was  kept  in  abeyance. 

At  the  time  of  its  restoration  Astoria  was  a  stockade 
post,  150  by  250  feet,  with  two  bastions,  twenty-one  pieces 
of  small  artillery  and  sixty-five  men,  of  whom  twenty- 
three  were  white,  and  the  rest  half-breeds  and  Hawai- 
ians.  In  1818,  the  question  of  boundary  again  became  a 
matter  of  negotiation  at  London,  through  Messrs.  Rush 
and  Gallatin.  The  English  commissioners  made  an 
attempt  to  secure  the  right  of  navigating  the  Mississippi, 
but  of  course  failed,  and  finally  agreed  to  the  49°  from 
the  Lake  of  the  Woods  to  the  mountains.  In  discussing 
claims  to  territory  beyond  the  mountains  the  American 
commissioners  "  did  not  assert  that  the  United  States 
had  a  perfect  right  to  that  country,  but  insisted  thot 
their  claim  was  at  least  good  against  Great  Britain." 
On  the  other  hand  the  English  commissioners  did  not 
propose  any  boundary,  but  intimated  that  the  Columbia 


284    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

would  best  accommodate  both,  and  said  that  England 
would  insist  on  holding  the  mouth  of  it  in  common  with 
the  United  Stafes.  In  this  mutual  dissent  and  failure 
the  plan  of  joint  occupation  for  ten  years  was  adopted 
and  signed  October  20,  1818. 

The  next  year  the  Florida  Treaty  made  the  United 
States  an  heir  to  all  Spanish  claims  and  rights  north 
of  42°.  Early  in  1829,  the  House  of  Representatives 
raised  inquiries  concerning  the  settlements  on  the  Pa- 
cific, and  the  expediency  of  occupying  the  Columbia.  A 
committee  reported  that  the  whole  territory  from  41°  to 
53°,  if  not  to  60°,  belonged  of  right  to  the  United  States, 
and  they  recommended  "  small  trading  guards  "  on  the 
heads  of  the  Missouri,  and  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia 
to  protect  immigration  and  trade.  The  report,  with  es- 
timates of  cost,  was  laid  on  the  table,  and  the  business 
slept  again  till  1823^ 

That  year  a  peculiar  project  was  started  by  the  United 
States,  and  it  is  thus  stated  by  Mr.  Benton :  "  That 
each  of  the  three  powers,  Great  Britain,  Russia,  and  the 
United  States,  having  claims  on  the  northwest  of  Amer- 
ica, should  divide  the  country  between  them,  each  taking 
a  third.  In  this  plan  of  partition  each  was  to  receive 
a  share  of  the  continent  from  the  sea  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  Russia  taking  the  northern  slice,  the  United 
States  the  southern,  and  Great  Britain  the  centre,  with 
54°  40'  for  her  northern  boundary,  and  49°  for  her 
southern."  The  project  was  not  acceptable  to  the  other 
parties.  In  offering  it  Mr.  Rush  stipulated  that  the 
United  States  would  not  settle  north  of  49°,  if  the  Eng- 
lish would  confine  themselves  between  it  and  54°  40' 
In  view  of  this  offer  by  the  United  States  in  1823,  Eng- 
land must  have  looked  with  surprise  on  our  claim  to 
54°  40'  in  1846,  with  the  alternative  of  war. 


AT  LAST  A  TREATY.  285 

Extracts  from  two  letters  of  Mr.  Adams,  Secretary 
of  State,  will  show  how  the  United  States  regarded  her 
rights  over  the  •mountains  at  that  time:  "The  right  of 
the  United  States  from  the  42d  to  the  49th  parallels  of 
latitude  on  the  Pacific  Ocean  we  consider  as  unquestion- 
able." And  sigain  :  "  I  mention  the  latitude  of  fifty-one 
as  the  bound  within  which  we  are  willing  to  limit  the 
future  settlements  of  the  United  States.  .  .  .  As,  how- 
ever, the  line  is  already  run  in  latitude  forty-nine  to  the 
Stony  Mountains,  should  it  be  earnestly  insisted  upon  by 
Great  Britain,  we  will  consent  to  carry  it  into  continu- 
ance on  the  same  parallel  to  the  sea." l 

When  the  proposal  for  a  tripartite  plan  failed,  the 
United  States  offered  joint  occupation  for  ten  years,  dur- 
ing which  time  the  English  were  to  make  no  settlements 
north  of  55°  or  south  of  49°.  The  English  offered  49° 
to  the  Columbia,  and  thence  to  the  sea  by  it,  with  free- 
dom of  settlement,  navigation  and  travel,  to  both  parties 
throughout  the  entire  territory  for  ten  years.  Both 
offers  were  rejected,  and  the  question  rested  till  1827. 

When  the  convention  of  joint  occupation  was  then 
expiring,  negotiations  were  revived.  Great  Britain  re- 
newed her  lust  offer,  and  the  United  States  repeated  the 
offer  of  1818,  which  was  substantially  —  the  49th  to  the 
sea,  free  and  perpetual  navigation  of  the  Columbia,  set- 
tlers of  either  nation  outside  these  agreed  boundaries 
could  remain  for  ten  years,  but  no  more  new  ones. 
The  proposals  were  mutually  declined,  and  the  policy 
of  joint  occupation  was  renewed  to  run  indefinitely, 
with  right  to  termination  on  notice  of  one  year  by 
either  party.  This  was  in  1827. 

In  1831,  Mr.  Livingston,  Secretary  of  State,  informed 

1  Debates  in  Congress,  vol.  xv.,  534. 


286     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

Mr.  Van  Buren,  minister  to  England,  that  "  the  subject 
is  open  for  discussion,  and  until  the  rights  of  the  parties 
can  be  settled  by  negotiation  ours  can  suffer  nothing  by 
delay."  The  delay  continued,  without  any  prominent 
attention  to  the  matter,  till  1843.  In  that  year  Mr. 
Everett,  our  minister  to  England,  was  instructed  that 
"  the  offer  of  the  forty-ninth  parallel  of  latitude,  al- 
though it  has  once  been  rejected,  may  be  again  ten- 
dered, together  with  the  right  of  navigating  the  Colum- 
bia upon  equitable  terms.  Beyond  this  the  President 
[Mr.  Tyler]  is  not  now  prepared  to  go."  But  nothing 
was  done  of  note  or  progress.1  It  was  the  year  follow- 
ing in  which  Mr.  Pakenham  as  minister  plenipotentiary 
on  the  Oregon  question,  arrived  at  Washington,  but  he 
and  Mr.  Calhoun,  our  Secretary  of  State,  only  renewed 
the  failure  of  all  their  predecessors. 

When  Mr.  Polk  gave  his  inaugural  in  1845,  negotia- 
tions had  been  merely  prolonged  without  any  visible 
progress.  Yet  it  should  be  said  that  a  gain  was  made 
in  obtaining  claims  and  the  offer  of  limits,  that  were 
mutually  rejected.  In  this  way  the  area  and  scope  of 
the  controversy  became  narrower,  and  it  gathered  and 
concentrated  information,  showing  to  the  studious  and 
reflecting  where  the  dividing  line  would  probably  run. 
It  was  a  growth  of  public  knowledge  and  of  opinion, 
and  this  was  as  slow  as  it  was  indispensable.  The 
President  used  the  occasion  to  state  that  "our  title 
to  the  country  of  the  Oregon  is  clear  and  unquestion- 
able," and  he  recommended  that  the  jurisdiction  of  our 
laws  and  the  benefits  of  our  republican  institutions  be 
extended  over  the  Americans  there. 

Matters  then  went  on  quietly  till  December,  and  nego- 
l  Senate  Document,  489, 1st  Session,  29th  Congress,  1844. 


AT  LAST  A  TREATY.  287 

tiation  kept  up  a  hare  vitality  through  the  summer,  as  the 
correspondence  showed,  when  published.  Mr.  McLane, 
the  American  minister  to  England,  was  furnished  by 
Mr.  Buchanan,  Secretary  of  State,  with  a  resume  of 
previous  negotiations  and  the  views  of  the  administra- 
tion, since  he  might  be  able  to  use  opportunities  and  in- 
fluence the  English  ministry  directly  or  indirectly  in  the 
matter.  This  was  in  July,  1845.  In  this  communica- 
tion of  the  Secretary  it  was  made  to  appear,  almost  as 
if  a  discovery,  that  "  the  Straits  of  Fuca,  Admiralty 
Inlet  and  Puget  Sound,  with  their  fine  harbors  and  rich 
surrounding  soil,  are  all  south  of  this  parallel,"  —  49°, 
while  the  country  in  dispute  north  of  this  was  disparaged 
as  comparatively  worthless.  Mr.  Buchanan  discarded 
arbitration,  and  showed  that  the  United  States  were 
shut  up  to  compromise  on  the  much  repeated  offer  of 
forty-nine,  or  to  the  exclusive  claim  of  the  whole  of 
Oregon,  with  "  war  almost  inevitable." 

It  was  wisely  concluded  that  the  judgment  of  the  civil- 
ized world  would  be  adverse  to  the  last  resort,  if  Great 
Britain  should  yield  all  south  of  49°.  The  President 
had  offered  this  and  free  ports  to  England  on  Vancou- 
ver, south  of  it,  but  with  no  rights  of  navigation  on  the 
Columbia  as  previously  proposed.  This  last  offer,  he  af- 
firmed, he  could  not  make  to  any  foreign  power,  and  it 
was  hoped  that  the  offer  now  made  of  free  ports  on 
Vancouver  would  offset  the  withdrawal  of  that  on  the 
Columbia. 

Mr.  Pakenham  refused  this  last  offer  without  even 
referring  it  for  home  advice,  and  so,  a  month  later, 
the  last  of  August,  the  President  formally  withdrew  it. 
He  was  the  more  ready  to  do  this  because,  as  he  said, 
he  would  not  have  made  so  liberal  an  offer  if  he  had  not 


288  OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

been  entangled  and  constrained  by  the  offers  of  his  pred- 
ecessors in  a  government  that  never  dies.  In  a  closing 
extremity  he  intimated  through  the  secretary  to  Minister 
McLane,  that  he  would  concede  the  whole  of  Vancouver, 
but  "  will  not  renew  his  former  offer,  nor  submit  any 
other  proposition."  Then  the  next  step  must  be  taken 
by  Great  Britain.  This  was  said  as  late  as  November 
5,  1845.  After  this  manner  the  summer  passed  in  fruit- 
less negotiation,  except  that  the  range  of  international 
debate  was  narrowed,  and  the  points  in  it  sharpened. 
Then,  as  I  have  shown  in  the  preceding  chapter,  "  the 
winter  of  our  discontent "  opened  with  the  annual 
message  of  December  2d,  on  the  ardent  ultimatum  of 
"  Fifty-four  Forty,  or  Fight." 

Two  things  should  be  here  noted.  The  Vancouver 
question  was  added  as  a  new  item  in  the  struggle. 
While  there  was  a  growing  tendency  to  compromise  on 
the  49°  on  the  main  laud,  there  was  the  grand  island  of 
Vancouver,  about  twice  as  large  as  Massachusetts,  which 
this  line,  when  continued,  would  divide. 

As  early  as  1826,  and  for  the  first  time,  the  proposal 
was  made  by  Mr.  Huskisson,  an  English  plenipotenti- 
ary, to  turn  the  boundary  south  from  the  49th  so  much 
as  to  give  all  of  Vancouver  to  Great  Britain.  Then 
the  discovery  was  more  and  more  obvious  to  the  United 
States  that  Great  Britain  was  but  a  proxy  to  the  real 
party  in  interest  with  whom  the  American  govern- 
ment had  to  do,  —  the  Hudson  Bay  Company.  This 
was  the  power  back  of  the  throne,  a  huge  chartered  and 
continental  monopoly,  too  much  for  the  English  minis- 
try as  it  was  for  the  true  English  interest. 

Only  two  days  before  Lord  Aberdeen  sent  his  draft  of 
a  treaty  to  minister  Pakenham,  which  was  adopted  as 


AT  LAST  A   TREATY.  289 

the  treaty  of  1846,  Sir  John  Pelley,  then  governor  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company,  had  an  interview  with  his  lord- 
ship, and  pressed  his  theory  of  the  water  boundary.  To 
make  sure,  if  possible,  the  interests  of  his  company,  he  im- 
mediately wrote  out  and  forwarded  his  theory  and  wishes 
to  Lord  Aberdeen,  that  they  might  find  place  in  the 
treaty.  He  assumes  that  Vancouver  will  be  taken  by 
Great  Britain  "  upon  the  principle  of  mutual  conven- 
ience." Thus,  of  the  three  possible  channels  from  the 
49th  parallel  in  the  Gulf  of  Georgia  south  into  the 
Straits  of  Fuca,  he  proposes  the  one  nearest  to  the  con- 
tinent, with  the  remark :  "  The  only  objection  to  this  is 
giving  to  the  United  States  the  valuable  Island  of 
Whidbey ;  but  I  do  not  see  how  this  can  be  avoided  in 
an  amicable  adjustment." 

As  he  could  hardly  run  a  yawl  between  the  continent 
and  this  island,  and  so  call  that  passage  "  the  middle  of 
the  channel,"  he  reluctantly  concedes  the  loss  of  Whid- 
bey. So  grasping  was  this  huge  monopoly,  whose  next 
step  might  as  reasonably  have  been  to  claim  the  kelp 
and  seaweed  on  the  mainland  shores.  Of  course,  when 
the  machine  becomes  superior  to  the  manufacturer,  and 
the  creature  to  be  above  the  creator,  the  outlook  is  ser- 
ious for  the  commonalty.  It  finally  appeared  that  only 
a  foreign  power,  and  in  its  immigrating  force,  could  han- 
dle that  organized  and  embodied  selfishness  of  pounds 
sterling. 

It  is  devoutly  to  be  wished  that  at  this  late  day  in 
monopolies,  and  early  one  in  the  rights  of  the  people,  a 
free  government  might  profit  by  noted  historic  exam- 
ples. Anthony  Crozat,  with  imperial  and  solitary  sway 
from  the  Alleghanies  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and 
from  the  Great  Gulf  to  the  Great  Lakes ;  the  chartered 
19 


290     OREGON:   TUE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

"  Mississippi  Bubble,"  to  burst  over  the  same  domain  in 
the  hands  of  John  Law;  this  Hudson  Bay  Company) 
with  territory  under  its  control  one  third  larger  than  all 
Europe  ;  the  East  India  Company  that  wrestled  oppres- 
sively with  pagans  and  successfully  with  Parliament ; 
and  half  a  dozen  railroad  men  who  can  set  a  price  for 
the  farmers  on  their  five  hundred  million  bushels  of 
wheat,  year  by  year,  and  fix  the  charge  on  the  transfer 
of  your  trunk  from  Bangor  to  San  Francisco  —  these 
illustrative  cases  should  suggest  to  government  to  keep 
outside  the  ring  of  chartered  monopolies,  and  inside  the 
vastly  more  important  ring  of  the  people. 

Sir  Richard  Pakenham  hastily  declined  the  last  Amer- 
ican offer,  and  President  Polk  as  hastily  withdrew  it, 
and  announced  that  he  would  not  volunteer  another. 
Earl  Aberdeen  expressed  to  Pakenham  his  regrets  at 
this  withdrawal ;  indeed  he  both  lamented  and  condemned 
it ;  not  that  he  was  ready  to  accept  the  offer,  but  the  with- 
drawal left  nothing  for  diplomatic  dignity  to  lean  on  and 
start  from  as  a  basis  for  continued  negotiations.  It  em- 
barrassed the  English  government  by  closing  the  door 
to  compromise,  and  so  forcing  it  feo  offer  arbitration  and 
abide  answer,  which  the  presidential  message  had  de- 
clined in  advance,  or  lie  swinging  in  the  current  of 
events,  which  in  some  senses  were  drifting  ominously  in 
the  direction  of  war. 

The  American  Cabinet,  alert  in  those  critical  and  anx- 
ious times,  was  not  insensible  to  the  rumors  floating 
across  the  Atlantic  that  Great  Britain  was  making  un- 
usual warlike  preparations.  On  official  inquiry  Aber- 
deen softened  the  anxieties,  but  did  not  entirely  remove 
them.  Just  at  the  close  of  the  year  Minister  Pakenham 
proposed  arbitration,  not  on  the  title  to  the  whole  of 


AT  LAST  A  TREATY.  291 

Oregon,  but  for  "  an  equitable  division,"  which  as  soon 
as  decorous,  or  within  six  days,  was  declined. 

So  closed  the  year  1845.  To  the  people  under  both 
governments  it  hud  been  an  anxious  year,  and  it  closed 
gloomily.  For  while  tendencies  within  the  screens  of 
diplomacy  were  toward  an  amicable  settlement  by  com- 
promise, the  citizens  at  large  knew  nothing  of  this  posi- 
tively. Later  and  bold  assurances  by  leading  men  in 
the  government  that  there  would  be  no  war,  gave  some 
buoyancy  to  drooping  hopes,  under  the  impression  that 
these  men  had  some  inside  views  of  the  future.  Before 
the  first  mouth  of  the  new  year  had  gone  by  Pak- 
enliain  made  a  qualified  renewal  of  arbitrators  to  the 
effect  that  they  should  first  see  whether  either  party 
had,  of  right,  a  title  to  the  whole  territory,  and  if  not, 
they  should  then  make  an  equitable  division.  To  this 
Buchanan  replied  that  the  plan  embodied  too  much 
temptation  to  the  arbitrators  to  attempt  to  please  both 
parties  by  dividing  the  territory  between  them.  Ho 
added,  "  the  continued  conviction  of  the  President  that 
the  United  States  hold  the  best  title  in  existence  to  the 
whole  of  this  territory,"  and  "  that  he  does  not  believe 
the  territorial  rights  of  this  nation  to  be  a  proper  subject 
for  arbitration." 

On  the  day  preceding,  February  3,  Minister  Mc- 
Lane  writes  hopefully  to  Secretary  Buchanan.  He  ex- 
presses the  opinion  that  a  settlement  could  be  effected 
by  compromise,  and  that  he  could,  if  thought  best,  secure 
from  the  English  Cabinet  a  reopening  of  negotiations. 
He  thinks  he  can  draw  from  it  an  offer  similar  to  the  one 
made  by  Mr.  Polk,  which  Mr.  Pakenham  declined  with- 
out reference  to  his  government,  that  is,  the  forty-ninth 
parallel,  with  free  ports  on  Vancouver  south  of  it-  And 


292     OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

to  save  both  American  and  English  feeling  he  would 
vary  it  by  offering  to  continue  the  privileges  of  the  Hud- 
son Buy  Company,  and  the  navigation  of  the  Columbia 
for  seven  or  ten  years.  There  was  hope  in  this  dis- 
patch, from  the  fact  that  our  minister  to  England  had 
been  studying  English  sentiment,  and  seemed  to  have 
discovered  regrets  on  their  part  that  the  offer  in  ques- 
tion was  rejected,  and  that  its  renewal  would  be  wel- 
comed, if  Great  Britain  could  do  it  without  compromis- 
ing her  dignity. 

Our  secretary  replied  promptly,  and  encouraged  our 
minister  to  draw  from  that  government  the  substance  of 
the  old  offer,  yet  with  such  variations  as  to  make  it  in  a 
measure  new,  and  so  save  each  government  from  the  hu- 
miliation of  an  apparent  retraction.  After  Mr.  McLane 
had  informed  Secretary  Buchanan  that  he  could  not 
honorably  draw  from  Lord  Aberdeen  an  offer  unless  he 
"  could  officially  know  that  the  proposition  would  proba- 
bly be  acceptable  at  Washington,"  the  secretary  em- 
powered the  minister  to  secure,  for  substance,  the  offer 
in  question. 

By  such  careful  and  tedious  and  sensitive  processes 
did  this  boundary  question  drag  its  slow  length  along. 
More  than  once  these  two  great  Christian  powers  verged 
on  the  edge  of  battlefields,  under  the  pressure  of  punc- 
tilios. It  is  to  be  hoped  that  by  and  by,  in  the  great 
scales  of  humanity  and  civilization,  national  pride  and 
etiquette  will  not  outweigh  the  horrors  of  war. 

Another  month  passed,  and  diplomacy  was  hastened 
and  made  easier  by  the  serving  of  notice  on  Great  Brit- 
ain that  the  joint  occupation  of  Oregon  would  terminate 
in  a  twelvemonth.  The  passage  of  a  resolution  to  this 
effect  in  Congress  has  already  been  detailed.  Its  pas- 


AT  LAST  A    TREATY.  293 

sage  was  a  practical  declaration  for  closing  the  long  con- 
troversy, and  a  broad  confidence  that  it  would  be  closed 
amicably.  The  vote  in  Congress  and  the  notice  in  Eng- 
land were  anticipated,  and  not  only  created  no  surprise, 
but  were  rather  welcomed  as  an  anticipated  relief. 

The  delicate  and  tentative  efforts  of  our  minister  to 
draw  from  the  English  government  the  offer  mentioned 
were  well  timed  with  the  approaching  notice,  as  the  offer 
left  England  on  or  very  near  to  the  time  of  the  arrival 
of  the  notice.  It  was  delivered  to  the  Secretary  of  State 
on  the  6th  of  June,  in  the  draft  of  a  new  treaty.  It  was 
approved  by  the  Senate,  and  at  once  matters  hastened  to 
a  finality.  The  rapidity  of  action  in  the  last  stages  of 
the  Oregon  question  is  worthy  the  momentum  that  it  had 
gained  in  so  many  years  of  progress.  The  compacted 
dates  and  acts  that  rounded  the  grand  period  may  be 
noted  here.  On  the  6th  of  June  the  Secretary  of  State 
received  from  Mr.  Packenham  the  English  draft  of  a 
new  treaty,  covering  the  Oregon  question;  on  the  10th 
the  President  submitted  it  to  the  Senate  for  advice  ;  on 
the  12th  the  Senate  advised  its  acceptance  ;  on  the  15th 
it  was  signed  by  Messrs.  Packenham  and  Buchanan  ;  on 
the  16th  it  went  to  the  Senate  for  approval  ;  on  the  18th 
they  ratified  it ;  on  the  22d  it  was  sent  to  London  to  be 
exchanged  for  the  English  ratification  ;  on  the  17th  of 
July  the  ratifications  were  exchanged  at  London ;  and 
on  the  5th  of  August  President  Polk  proclaimed  the 
Oregon  Treaty  as  the  law  of  the  land. 

It  is  of  importance  to  note  here  that  the  draft  of  this 
treaty  was  entirely,  and  word  for  word,  from  the  pen  of 
the  English  ministry.  This  should  be  remembered  when 
we  come  to  consider  how  obscure  and  complex  and  sur- 
prising the  interpretation  of  it  was  made  for  twenty-five 


294    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

years  afterward,  by  the  English  government.  And  in 
presenting  the  case  finally  to  the  Emperor  William  for 
arbitration,  Mr.  Bancroft  aptly  put  the  law  of  contracts 
as  laid  down  by  Grotius,  that  "  where  the  contract  is 
obscure  the  interpretation  must  be  against  the  party  who 
draughted  it;"  and  by  Vattel :  "If  he  v/ho  could  and 
should  express  himself  plainly  and  freely  has  not  done 
so,  so  much  the  worse  for  him.  He  cannot  be  permitted, 
subsequently,  to  introduce  restrictions  which  he  has  not 
expressed."  And  this  is  old  Roman  law,  that  an  obscure 
contract  must  harm  him  making  it,  if  any  one. 

The  worth  and  force  of  this  treaty,  fifty-four  years  in 
growth,  are  set  forth  in  its  first  article,  already  quoted. 
Two  subordinate  yet  important  items  should  be  here 
mentioned :  The  United  States  is  put  under  obligation 
to  regard  all  the  property  and  possessory  rights  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company  south  of  the  forty-ninth  parallel. 
Also,  the  property  of  the  Puget  Sound  Agricultural  Com- 
pany between  the  Columbia  and  the  forty-ninth  parallel 
is  to  be  confirmed  to  that  Company,  and  the  United 
States  may  take  it  on  an  agreed  valuation. 

These  two  items  are  in  reality  one,  for  the  Pugefc 
Sound  Agricultural  Company  was  only  another  form  of 
the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  working  in  the  line  of  agri- 
culture, and  somewhat  of  colonization.  Surplus  funds 
of  the  fur  company  were  added  to  two  stations  or  farms 
of  the  company,  and  used,  under  this  new  form  and 
title,  by  an  arrangement  of  the  company,  and  the  new 
"  company,"  so  called,  was  no  separate  chartered  organ- 
ization. It  held  the  relations  to  the  fur  company  that 
any  trading  factory  had.  It  paid  the  company  for  sup- 
plies received,  and  charged  it  with  supplies  furnished,  as 
any  branch  house  in  a  large  firm.  When  the  fur  com- 


AT  LAST  A   TREATY.  295 

pany  set  it  up  it  reserved  the  "  supreme  control  of  the 
Puget  Sound  Agricultural  Company."  This  was  five 
or  six  years  before  the  treaty  was  made,  and  the  policy 
served  a  good  end.  Two  claimants  instead  of  one  could 
ask  indemnity  when  the  United  States  came  in  posses- 
sion. The  real  Company,  the  Hudson  Bay,  filed  a  claim 
of  $3,822,036.37,  and  the  pretender,  or  quasi  company, 
$1,168,000  more,  a  portion  of  which  claims  was  allowed 
and  paid.  In  a  final  settlement,  November,  1864,  the 
United  States  paid  over  to  the  Hudson  Bay  Company 
as  indemnity  $450,000,  and  to  the  other  $200,000  — 
less  than  one  seventh  of  the  original  claim. 

So,  therefore,  at  the  last,  as  at  the  first,  and  always 
between,  the  United  States  had  to  do  with  this  great 
monopoly.  It  was  the  second,  yet  greater  self  of  Great 
Britain  in  North  America.  In  the  matters  of  the  New 
World,  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  was  the  secret  prov- 
idence of  England,  and  it  quietly  foreordained.  That 
magnificent  and  semicontinental  monopoly  stood  squarely 
in  opposition  to  the  growth  of  British  dominions  in  North 
America,  and  it  did  it  by  vigilantly  and  despotically  pre- 
venting the  growth  of  civilization  on  the  northern  half 
of  the  continent.  The  plough  and  saw-mill  and  anvil 
and  the  hum  of  village  industries  must  not  frighten  the 
beaver. 

It  is  on  the  authority  of  leading  English  authors  that 
these  strong  statements  are  made,  a  few  passages  from 
which  will  close  this  chapter.  "  To  say,  then,  that  the 
trade  of  this  country  [England]  has  been  fostered  and 
extended  by  the  monopoly  enjoyed  by  the  Company  is 
exactly  contrary  to  the  truth."  "  If  the  Company  were 
to  be  destroyed  to-morrow,  would  England  be  poorer  ? 
Would  there  not  rather  be  demanded  from  the  hands  of 


296     OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

our  own  manufacturers  ten  times  the  quantity  of  goods 
which  is  sent  abroad,  under  the  present  system,  to  pur- 
chase skins  ?  We  boast  that  we  make  no  slaves,  none 
at  least  that  can  taint  our  soil,  or  fret  our  sight ;  but  we 
take  the  child  of  the  forest,  whom  God  has  given  us  to 
civilize,  and  commit  him,  bound  hand  and  foot,  to  the 
most  iron  of  despotisms  —  a  commercial  monopoly." 
"  Nor,  turning  from  the  results  of  our  policy  upon  the 
native  population  to  its  effect  upon  the  settlers  and  col- 
onists, is  there  greater  cause  for  congratulation."  "  The 
system  which  has  made  the  native  a  slave  is  making  the 
settler  a  rebel."  It  has  "  driven  the  best  settlers  into 
American  territory,  and  left  the  rest,  as  it  were,  packing 
up  their  trunks  for  the  journey."  "  The  Hudson  Bay 
Company  has  positive  interests  antagonistic  to  those 
of  an  important  settlement."  "  It  is  a  body  whose 
history,  tendency,  traditions,  and  prospects  are  equally 
and  utterly  opposed  to  the  existence  within  its  hunting- 
grounds  of  an  active,  wealthy,  independent,  and  flourish- 
ing colony." 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

WHAT    DID    THE    TREATY    MEAN? 

THE  Oregon  Treaty  was  proclaimed  as  the  law  of 
the  land,  but  it  remained  to  run  the  lines.  This  would 
seem  to  be  an  easy  work  that  could  be  promptly  done, 
especially  as  the  most  of  it  was  on  a  parallel  of  latitude. 
But  there  was  an  august  delay.  Nine  years  after  the 
ratification  of  the  treaty  the  President,  in  1855,  rec- 
ommended that  the  survey  be  made.  The  next  year 
Congress  created  a  Boundary  Commission;  in  1857 
commissioners  were  appointed  to  unite  with  English 
commissioners,  and  on  June  27th  of  that  year  they  held 
their  first  meeting.  The  head  commissioners  were,  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States,  Archibald  Campbell,  Esq., 
and  for  the  English  government  "  our  trusty  and  well-be- 
loved James  Charles  Prevost,  Esq.,  a  captain  in  Our 
Royal  Navy." 

The  Ashburton  Treaty  had  fixed  the  boundary  on  tho 
forty-ninth  parallel  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  eight  hun- 
dred to  a  thousand  miles  westward  from  the  Lake  of  the 
Woods.  One  half  of  such  a  distance  would  prolong  it 
to  the  Pacific.  Thence  it  was  to  follow  this  parallel  and 
take,  as  the  treaty  worded  it,  "  the  middle  of  the  channel 
which  separates  the  continent  from  Vancouver's  Island," 
and  follow  it  through  the  Straits  of  Fuca  to  the  ocean. 
At  the  first  meeting  of  the  commissioners  it  appeared, 
though  the  reasons  are  not  obvious,  that  Captain  Pro- 


298     OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

vost  was  limited  to  run  and  mark  only  the  water  line, 
from  the  Pacific  coast  to  the  open  ocean  —  "  so  much  of 
the  line  of  boundary  hereinbefore  described  as  is  to  be 
traced  from  the  point  where  the  forty-ninth  parallel  of 
north  latitude  strikes  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Gulf  of 
Georgia" — the  Pacific  coast.  Perhaps  this  was  best, 
for  sooner  or  later  the  final  struggle  between  the  two 
governments  was  to  come  in  dividing  that  archipelago 
between  the  mainland  and  Vancouver's. 

Foot  by  foot,  as  I  have  traced  the  battle  of  diplomacy 
from  the  lost  one  of  the  sword  at  Yorktown,  the  retiring 
English  had  disputed  the  yielding  ground.  Starting  on 
the  forty-ninth  parallel,  to  which  the  English  and  French 
fathers  had  agreed  in  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  in  demark- 
ing  Hudson  Bay  possessions  from  the  ancient  Louisiana, 
that  boundary  had  now  been  prolonged  to.  the  Pacific. 
As  an  astronomical  line,  stated  in  astronomical  terms  in 
the  treaty,  it  was  hopelessly  above  the  intermeddling  and 
interrogations  of  state  papers,  signed  "with  the  highest 
consideration."  Astronomy  was  too  strong  for  diplomacy, 
and  so  what  could  not  be  varied  was  left  unfinished,  be- 
tween the  mountains  and  the  ocean,  and  Captain  Pre- 
vost  must  begin  his  work  on  the  coast,  where,  in  the  com- 
plexity of  channels,  there  could  be  a  forced  ambiguity 
in  the  treaty. 

It  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  no  map  or  chart  was  at- 
tached to  the  treaty  of  1846  that  would  have  insured  a 
general  agreement  on  its  intent.  When  the  treaty  of 
1783  was  draughted,  the  joint  commissioners,  says  Ban- 
croft, "  in  the  hope  of  preventing  the  possibility  of  a 
future  dispute  about  boundaries  "  marked  them  on  Mit- 
chell's map.  But  in  this  case  neither  party  had  geograph- 
ical knowledge  enough  of  that  breadth  of  archipelago  to 


WHAT  DID   THE   TREATY  MEAN1  299 

fnrnish  a  descriptive  plan  of  it.  In  speaking  of  this  Sir 
Richard  Pakenham  says  :  "  It  is  my  belief  that  neither 
Lord  Aberdeen,  nor  Mr.  McLane,  nor  Mr.  Buchanan 
possessed  at  that  time  a  sufficiently  accurate  knowledge 
of  the  geography  or  hydrography  of  the  region  in  ques- 
tion to  enable  them  to  define  more  accurately  what  was 
the  intended  line  of  boundary  than  is  expressed  in  the 
words  of  the  treaty."  The  treaty  of  1 783,  for  the  same 
reasons,  entailed  the  same  difficulties  for  the  Ashburton 
Treaty  to  settle.  Notably  the  prior  treaty  placed  the 
boundary  point  on  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  many  miles 
out  of  the  way  north,  and  guessed  outside  of  a  hundred 
on  the  sources  of  the  Mississippi,  and  left  the  "  true  St. 
Croix  "  and  "  the  highlands  "  on  the  Maine  border  for  a 
hard  search  and  filial  compromise  in  the  Ashburton 
Treaty. 

When  the  British  Admiralty  sent  Vancouver  to  the 
northwest  coast  on  a  voyage  of  discovery,  they  instructed 
him  to  watch  carefully  for  channels  and  rivers  leading 
into  the  interior  of  the  continent,  with  the  hope  that 
water  communication  might  be  discovered  from  the  Pa- 
cific to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods.  As  we  have  seen,  he 
barely  escaped  the  discovery  of  the  Columbia  that  Cap- 
tain Gray  made  soon  after.  So  little  was  known  of 
American  geography,  even  after  the  Revolution. 

Very  few  sections  in  this  world  could  offer  so  good  a 
field  for  diplomatic  finesse  in  running  an  undetermined 
boundary  as  that  medley  of  land  and  water  between  the 
continent  and  Vancouver,  being  about  fifty  miles  in 
breadth,  east  and  west,  and  having  a  length  for  its  seve- 
ral channels  of  perhaps  sixty,  north  and  south.  In  these 
three  thousand  square  miles  there  are  thirty-nine  islands 
that  have  come  under  name  and  description,  that  range 


800    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

from  sixteen  miles  to  less  than  one  fourth  of  a  mile  in 
length,  and  from  fifty-four  to  one  half  a  square  mile  in 
area.  Besides,  there  are  very  many  unnamed  smaller 
ones,  and  they  all  have  more  or  less  value  i'or  grazing, 
agriculture,  and  timber.  Through  these  islands,  a  hun- 
dred or  so,  and  in  an  area  about  twice  as  large  as  Rhode 
Island,  there  run  ten  channels  southward,  but  combine 
in  three  as  they  empty  into  the  Straits  of  Fuca ;  the 
eastern  is  the  Rosario,  the  middle  one  is  hardly  worth  a 
name  for  our  purpose,  and  the  western  is  the  Canal  de 
Haro.  The  scenery  here  is  peculiarly  grand  and  wild 
among  bold  shores  and  very  deep  waters,  with  mountain 
peaks  as  high  as  two  thousand  feet,  and,  in  one  instance, 
twenty-five  hundred  feet. 

The  two  channels  worthy  of  account  are  the  Rosario 
and  the  De  Haro,  the  latter  being  about  one  half  wider 
and  deeper  than  the  former.  It  has  six  and  a  half  miles 
maximum  width  to  four  of  Rosario.  Its  greatest  depth 
is  one  hundred  and  eighty-three  fathoms  to  sixty  in  Ro- 
sario. Under  the  terms  of  the  treaty  the  middle  or 
President's  channel  is  not  entitled  to  notice.  The  least 
depth  in  the  Canal  de  Haro  is  greater  than  the  greatest 
in  Rosario,  while  its  average  depths,  widths,  and  volume 
of  water  are  greatly  superior.  All  these  facts  would 
mark  the  Canal  de  Haro  as  "  the  channel  which  separates 
the  continent  from  Vancouver's  Island,"  answering  to 
these  words  of  the  treaty. 

The  marvel  is  that  England  should  name  any  other 
than  the  Haro  as  separating  the  continent  from  Van- 
couver, since,  when  the  treaty  was  made,  none  other 
was  known  to  the  negotiators  in  those  waters.  The 
term,  Rosario  Straits,  was  not  then  on  any  map  — 
English,  French,  Spanish,  or  German  —  as  a  channel 


WHAT  DID  THE  TREATY  MEAN1  301 

between  that  island  and  the  mainland.  In  the  Royal 
Library  of  Berlin,  near  to  which  the  Court  of  Arbitra- 
tion was  held,  a  library  rich  in  maps  and  charts,  the 
.  Haro  was  the  only  channel  named  for  the  region  where 
afterward  the  English  rushed  to  locate  the  Rosario. 
When  the  treaty  was  negotiated,  the  "  Rosario  Straits  " 
were  north  of  the  forty-ninth  parallel,  and  these  waters 
did  not  touch  either  Vancouver  or  the  continent,  and 
the  Queen's  geographer  still  located  them  there  in  1848 
—  two  years  after  the  treaty  was  made.  Afterward 
they  appeared  where  the  English  could  use  them  for 
their  surprising  interpretation  of  the  treaty. 

At  the  time  when  the  treaty  was  made  every  map  or 
chart  shows  "  Rosario  Straits  "  between  Texada  and  the 
continent,  which  island  is  wholly  north  of  forty-nine 
and  a  half  degrees  north.  Thus  the  French  map  of 
Duflot  de  Mofras  of  1844  places  it.  But  the  next  year 
after  the  treaty  the  British  Admiralty  had  new  surveys 
made  by  Captain  Kellett,  and  in  their  next  map,  1849, 
they  introduced  these  straits  far  below  the  forty-ninth 
parallel  where  they  could  serve  their  interpretation  of 
the  treaty. 

But  this  complexity  of  islands  and  channels  suits  well 
the  genius  of  a  diplomacy  that  seeks  an  end  by  indirec- 
tion, and  delights,  therefore,  in  curves  and  sinuosities 
and  ambiguities.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  liberal  word- 
ing of  a  treaty,  calling  for  a  boundary  across  such  re- 
gion, would  furnish  strong  temptation  to  evasion  by 
those  who  may  have  come  reluctantly  to  sign  it.  Had 
there  been  no  Vancouver  there  would  have  been  no 
question,  and  the  forty-ninth  parallel  would  have  car- 
ried the  boundary  direct  into  the  Pacific.  But  the 
United  States  conceded  all  of  Vancouver,  south  of  that 


302    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

parallel,  for  amity,  and  did  not  presume  on  giving  up 
anything  else  of  consequence  south  of  that  latitude. 
They  conceded  it  only,  and  provided  for  taking  the  best 
channel  that  separated  it  from  the  continent.  The 
main  point  was  to  leave  Vancouver  undivided  to  Great 
Britain.  In  1826  Huskisson,  the  English  plenipoten- 
tiary, proposed  to  Gallatin,  the  American  minister, 
to  run  so  far  south  of  the  forty-ninth  parallel  on 
Vancouver  as  to  save  all  that  island  to  Great  Britain. 
This  was  the  first  appearance  of  the  theory,  and  the 
deflection  of  the  line  of  forty-nine  was  only  to  give 
all  of  that  island,  and  no  more,  to  Great  Britain. 
Eminent  justice,  on  this  plan,  was  pleased  finally  to 
find  the  main  channel  to  be  the  one  nearest  to  the  con- 
ceded island,  thus  giving,  as  was  right,  all  the  other 
principal  islands  south  of  that  parallel  to  the  conceding 
government. 

But  there  were  three  channels  possible  for  vessels, 
and  between  the  best,  which  was  near  Vancouver,  and 
an  interior  one  near  the  continent,  there  lay  about  four 
hundred  square  miles,  in  which  were  several  promi- 
nent islands,  and  many  small  ones,  in  land-area  about 
one  hundred  and  seventy  square  miles.  The  ownership 
and  sovereignty  of  these  were  involved  in  the  settle- 
ment of  the  channel  question.  The  most  valuable  of 
all  the  islands  between  the  mainland  and  Vancouver 
was  San  Juan,  one  of  the  above,  containing  fifty-five 
square  miles,  and  the  most  of  it  good  grazing  land  the 
larger  part  of  the  year. 

It  was  not  ominous  of  speedy  and  harmonious  con- 
clusion of  the  work  of  the  Boundary  Commission,  when 
Captain  Prevost  informed  Mrp  Campbell  that  he  had 
no  authority  to  run  the  laud  line.  His  cornoussiou  con- 


303 

fined  him  to  the  water  line.  Over  this  water  part  of 
the  northwestern  boundary  the  two  commissioners  con- 
sumed much  time  and  some  feeling.  They  had  seven, 
official  interviews  in  the  fourteen  months  following  the 
first,  June  27,  1857,  and  fourteen  letters  from  each 
passed  between  October  28,  1857,  and  July  19,  1859. 
But  little  was  gained  by  the  commissioners  in  the  way 
of  settlement,  except  a  knowledge  of  the  ground  and  of 
the  intention  of  the  two  parties.  Special  skill  and  pro 
ficiency  were  shown  by  Captain  Prevost  how  not  to  do 
the  work. 

Naturally,  openly,  and  as  the  final  arbitration  showed, 
justly,  Mr.  Campbell  claimed  for  the  United  States  the 
Canal  de  Haro  according  to  the  intent  of  the  treaty. 
The  depth,  breadth,  and  volume  of  this  marked  it  as 
the  channel  from  the  Gulf  of  Georgia  on  the  forty-ninth 
parallel  to  the  Straits  of  Fuca.  The  facts  of  nature, 
developed  in  the  hydrographic  survey,  left  no  other  con- 
clusion. The  English  advocate  made  the  point  that  De 
Haro  was  seldom  used  by  vessels,  but  Rosario  ordinar- 
ily. But  it  appeared  that  the  war  of  1812  broke  up  all 
trade  but  English  on  that  coast,  and  they  used  the  Ro- 
sario as  giving  them  the  best  access  to  their  trading- 
posts.  The  Hudson  Bay  Company  boasted  that  "  they 
compelled  the  Americans  one  by  one  to  withdraw  from 
the  contest ;  "  and  it  does  not  appear  that  an  American 
vessel  visited  those  waters  after  1810,  till  Commodore 
Wilkes  entered  them  in  1841.  This  plea  for  Rosario 
against  De  Haro  was  not  only  painfully  specious  but 
provoking  to  Americans. 

That  the  De  Haro  was  the  channel  was  the  under- 
standing at  the  time  of  the  negotiation  of  the  treaty. 
Sir  Richard  Pakenham  quotes  Mr.  Me  Lane,  the  United 


804    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

States  minister  to  England  in  the  negotiations,  as  say- 
ing that  the  "  boundary  about  to  be  proposed  by  her 
Majesty's  government  would  '  probably  be  substantially 
to  divide  the  territory  by  the  extension  of  the  line  in  the 
parallel  of  forty-nine  degrees  to  the  sea,  that  is  to  say, 
to  the  arm  of  the  sea  called  Birch's  Bay,  thence  by  the 
Canal  de  Haro  and  Straits  of  Fuca  to  the  ocean.'  " 
Lord  Russell  indorses  this  by  quoting  its  substance  in  a 
dispatch  to  Minister  Lyons,  and  adds  that  Mr.  Benton 
used  similar  language  in  the  Senate,  when  the  treaty 
came  under  discussion  before  that  body.  Mr.  Bancroft, 
who  was  a  member  of  President  Folk's  Cabinet  when 
the  treaty  was  concluded,  says  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Bucha- 
nan, Secretary  of  State  :  "  It  is  not  probable,  however, 
that  any  claim  of  this  character  will  be  seriously  pre- 
ferred by  her  Britannic  Majesty's  government  to  any 
island  lying  to  the  eastward  of  the  Canal  de  Arro." 
Elsewhere  Mr.  Bancroft  writes :  "  Such  was  the  under- 
standing of  everybody  at  the  time  of  consummating  the 
treaty  in  England  and  at  Washington."  He  says  this 
in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Campbell  in  1 858.  Mr.  Buchanan, 
who  signed  the  treaty  for  the  United  States,  expressly 
mentions  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Me  Lane,  our  ambassador  to 
England,  and  on  the  very  day  when  Mr.  Pakenham 
delivered  to  him  the  treaty,  the  Canal  de  Haro  as  the 
one  intended  by  the  treaty. 

On  the  other  hand,  and  in  his  first  letter,  Captain 
Prevost  declares  the  Rosario  Straits  to  be  the  channel 
of  the  treaty.  By  this  claim  he  throws  the  four  hun- 
dred square  miles  above  mentioned  and  the  important 
islands  therein  on  the  English  side  of  the  line.  Among 
these  was  the  island  of  San  Jua^i,  and  occupied  by  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company  as  a  sheep  ranch,  with  animals 


WHAT  DID  THE  TREATY  MEAN1      305 

selling  at  eight  dollars  a  head.  Albeit  in  the  strug- 
gles to  retain  these  they  call  them  "  islets  of  little  or  no 
value." 

In  his  draught  of  instructions  Captain  Prevost  was 
informed  that  his  first  duty,  in  connection  with  the 
United  States  Commissioner,  "will  be  to  determine  with 
accuracy  the  point  at  which  the  forty-ninth  parallel  of 
north  latitude  strikes  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Gulf  of 
Georgia,  and  to  mark  that  point  by  a  substantial  monu- 
ment." This  point  was  astronomically  and  satisfactorily 
fixed  by  the  chief  astronomers  and  surveyors  of  the  joint 
commission.  It  would  be  the  point  on  the  coast  of  the 
continent  from  which  the  land  line  of  boundary  would 
run  off  east,  and  the  water  line  west  on  the  forty-ninth 
parallel.  Captain  Prevost  was  willing  to  call  the  point 
a  true  and  accurately  taken  one  in  latitude,  and  to 
mark  the  spot  by  a  "substantial  monument,"  but  he 
would  not  consent  to  call  it  the  initial  or  starting-point 
of  the  water  line.  No  monument  was  set,  and  Mr. 
Campbell  inferred  that  the  English  commissioner  was 
under  secret  instructions  not  to  fix,  in  that  place,  the 
eastern  end  of  the  water  line,  and  that  the  English 
government  attached  considerable  importance  to  this  re- 
fusal. He  appeared  to  be  willing  to  fix  the  starting- 
point  of  the  water  boundary  fifteen  miles  to  the  east- 
ward on  a  bay.  Mr.  Campbell  presumed  that  the  secret 
theory  of  the  English  government  was,  after  various 
delays  and  difficulties,  in  determining  the  intent  of  the 
word  "  channel  "  in  the  treaty,  to  gain  the  consent  of 
the  United  States,  in  the  way  of  compromise  and  peace, 
to  the  interpretation  that  it  meant  the  entire  body  of 
water  and  islands  between  the  continent  and  the  shore 
of  Vancouver.  Then  "  the  middle  of  the  channel " 
20 


306    OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

would  be  a  mathematical  line  crossing  the  forty-ninth 
parallel  precisely  half  way  between  the  continent  and 
Vancouver.  If,  therefore,  the  starting-point  of  the  water 
line  had  been  previously  carried  inward  and  easterly 
fifteen  miles,  it  would  add  to  the  English  half  a  belt  of 
this  width. 

In  connection  with  this  theory  of  Mr.  Campbell  two 
or  three  considerations  should  have  place  and  weight. 
The  Rosario  Channel  proposed  by  Captain  Prevost 
would  give  to  England  not  only  all  of  Vancouver  but 
the  large  archipelago  between  Rosario  and  Vancouver. 
The  line  of  compromise  and  peace  proposed  by  Lord 
Russell  —  the  middle  or  equidistant  channel  —  would 
also  give  to  England  the  main  island,  San  Juan.  As 
to  this  island,  it  was  now  the  splendid  sheep  ranch 
of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  as  already  mentioned; 
moreover  that  company  claimed  it  as  Corporation  prop- 
erty. When,  at  a  later  date,  the  United  States  troops 
occupied  it,  the  agent  of  the  Company  wrote  to  the 
American  commander,  "  I  have  the  honor  to  inform 
you  that  the  island  of  San  Juan,  on  which  your  camp 
is  pitched,  is  the  property  and  in  the  occupation  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company,  and  to  request  that  you  and  the 
whole  of  the  party  who  have  landed  from  the  American 
vessels  will  immediately  cease  to  occupy  the  same." 

Evidently  the  English  government  must  save  that 
island  to  the  fur  company,  and  some  theory  of  inter- 
pretation of  the  treaty  must  be  devised  to  hold  it.  The 
arrogance  of  the  Company,  in  already  claiming  it  as 
property,  comports  with  their  ordinary  high  tone  in 
England  and  North  America,  since  the  treaty  of  joint 
occupation,  1818,  made  such  an  acquisition  of  right  and 
title  impossible  for  either  party.  Yet  in  violation  of 


WHAT  DID  THE  TREATY  MEANt  307 

the  compact  of  joint  occupation,  the  Crown,  in  1849, 
made  a  grant  of  Vancouver's  Island  to  this  company. 
The  grant  was  recalled  two  years  later. 

The  English  ^government  insisted  that  the  Oregon 
Treaty  must  be  so  construed  as  to  give  San  Juan  to 
Great  Britain.  Lord  Russell  thus  writes  to  Lord 
Lyons,  the  envoy  to  the  United  States :  "  Her  Maj- 
esty's government  must,  under  any  circumstances,  main- 
tain the  right  of  the  British  Crown  to  the  island  of  San 
Juan.  The  interests  at  stake  in  connection  with  the 
retention  of  that  island  are  too  important  to  admit  of 
compromise,  and  your  lordship  will  consequently  bear 
in  mind  that  whatever  arrangement  as  to  the  boundary 
line  is  finally  arrived  at,  no  settlement  of  the  question 
will  be  accepted  by  Her  Majesty's  government  which 
does  not  provide  for  the  island  of  San  Juan  being  re- 
served to  the  British  Crown."  "  Your  lordship  will  ac- 
cordingly propose  to  the  United  States  government  that 
the  boundary  line  shall  be  the  middle  channel  between 
the  continent  of  America  and  Vancouver's  Island." 

This  claim  and  declaration  were  preceded  by  the  high 
proclamation  of  Governor  Douglas  of  Vancouver's  Isl- 
and :  "  The  sovereignty  of  the  island  of  San  Juun  and 
of  the  whole  of  the  Haro  archipelago  has  always  been 
undeviatingty  claimed  to  be  in  the  Crown  of  Great  Bri- 
tain. Therefore,  I,  James  Douglas,  do  hereby  formally 
and  solemnly  protest  against  the  occupation  of  the  said 
island,  or  any  part  of  the  said  archipelago,  by  any  per- 
son whatsoever,  for,  or  on  behalf  of  any  other  power, 
hereby  protesting  and  declaring  that  the  sovereignty 
thereof  by  right  now  is,  and  always  hath  been,  in  Her 
Majesty,  Queen  Victoria,  and  her  predecessors,  kings  of 
Great  Britain.  Given  under  my  hand  and  seal,"  etc. 


308    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

It  is  evident  that  the  scheme  of  the  English  was  to 
divide  midway  between  the  continent  and  Vancouver, 
and  not  on  "  the  middle  of  the  channel  which  separates 
the  continent  from  Vancouver's  Island,"  and  it  would 
seem  to  he  evident  why  Captain  Prevost  would  not  mark 
by  monument  the  initial  point  on  the  east  of  the  dividing 
line,  unless  it  was  to  be  carried  into  the  continent  fifteen 
miles,  on  an  intruding  bay. 

The  tone  of  assumption  and  the  spirit  of  dictation 
shown  by  the  English  in  this  affair  are  painfully  obvious. 
The  question  was  on  the  import  of  the  phrase  "  the  mid- 
dle of  the  channel,"  yet  they  came  to  the  conferance  ar- 
rogating sovereignty  over  a  part  of  the  territory  in  dis- 
pute, and  declaring  that  "  under  any  circumstances " 
they  would  maintain  that  sovereignty,  and  would  accept 
no  settlement  that  did  not  allow  it  to  them.  This  left 
no  ground  for  interpreting  the  treaty,  or  for  argument, 
and  the  United  States  could  no  longer  continue  the 
conference  with  self-respect. 

Mr.  Cass,  our  Secretary  of  State,  of  course  made  re- 
ply that  "  if  this  declaration  is  to  be  insisted  on,  it  must 
terminate  the  negotiation  at  its  very  threshold  ;  because 
this  government  can  permit  itself  to  enter  into  no  dis- 
cussion with  that  of  Great  Britain  or  any  other  power, 
except  upon  terms  of  perfect  equality."  And  three 
months  later  :  "  To  declare  that  in  no  event  will  this  isl- 
and be  conceded  to  the  United  States  is,  in  effect,  to 
close  the  discussion.  .  .  .  The  discussion  has  been  prac- 
tically foreclosed  by  the  declaration  of  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell, that  it  can  under  no  circumstances  affect  the  British 
claim.  .  .  .  Since,  therefore,  Lord  John  Russell  repeats 
with  great  frankness  his  original  declaration  that  '  no 
settlement  of  the  question  will  be  accepted  by  Her  Maj- 


WHAT  DID  THE  TREATY  MEAN1  309 

esty's  government  which  does  not  provide  for  the  island 
of  San  Juan  being  reserved  to  the  British  Crown,'  I  ana 
directed  by  the  President  to  state  with  equal  frankness 
that  the  United  States  will,  under  all  circumstances,  main- 
tain their  right  to  the  island  in  controversy,  until  the 
question  of  title  to  it  shall  be  determined  by  some  amic- 
able arrangement  between  the  parties." 

This  was  not  an  agreeable  termination  to  the  work  of 
the  joint  'boundary  commission,  and  to  diplomacy  and 
ministerial  correspondence.  Of  course  those  Pacific  pio- 
neers, fur  men,  and  settlers  of  both  governments  became 
uneasy  under  the  incomprehensible  delays.  They  could 
not  see  why  an  agreement  could  not  be  executed  and  an 
agreed  boundary  line  run  in  the  course  of  twelve  years. 
Such  delays  seemed  manufactured  rather  than  an  in- 
herent natural  outgrowth  of  difficulties.  It  was  no 
strange  thing,  therefore,  that  primitive  and  natural  jus- 
tice wearied  of  waiting  for  ministers  of  state,  and  that 
the  pioneers  pushed  forward  their  personal  rights  and 
interests,  as  the  original  party  in  the  affair. 

This  is  characteristic  of  Americans  who  make  the  laws 
and  the  government,  and  was  so  on  this  occasion,  when 
they  thought  the  import  of  the  treaty  very  plain.  Bor- 
der men  are  quick  to  detect  any  by-play  by  which  the 
laws  are  made  inoperative  and  rights  are  postponed  or 
sacrificed,  and  then  they  are  liable  to  become  an  irregu- 
lar court,  and  make  short  work  with  the  law's  delay. 
They  did  this  in  the  early  days  of  San  Francisco  as  a 
Vigilance  Committee,  and  I  found  them  strongly  tempted 
to  do  the  same  in  Leadville,  when  an  officer  reported  to 
me  two  homicides  a  week  for  eight  months,  and  the 
courts  failed  to  convict  and  punish  a  single  murderer. 

The  territory  in  dispute  was  under  treaty  for  joint  and 


310     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

equal  occupation,  and  now,  after  provoking  delays  of 
many  years,  uncivil  and  even  belligerent  collision  was 
almost  sure  to  take  place  between  the  settlers  of  the 
two  nationalities,  since  their  rival  and  mutually  chafing 
interests  covered  the  undivided  territory  through  which 
the  treaty  line  was  to  be  run.  It  was  most  natural 
that  the  collision  should  come  on  the  principal  island  in 
dispute  —  San  Juan.  For  on  this  island  twenty-five 
Americans,  with  their  families,  were  living,  and  among 
and  around  them  were  the  servants  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  who  assumed  to  be  on  their  own  territory, 
made  over  to  them  by  the  English  government.  This 
was  against  the  spirit  and  letter  of  the  agreement  of 
joint  occupation,  which  forbade  any  possessory  or  mo- 
nopolizing rights  in  the  soil  to  either  party.  Of  this  con- 
dition of  things  and  the  collisions  which  were  imminent, 
Sir  Robert  Peel  well  spoke  in  the  House  of  Commons  : 
"  differences  which,  unless  speedily  terminated,  must 
probably  involve  both  countries  in  the  necessity  of  an 
appeal  to  arms." 

It  is  not  pleasant  to  think  how  near  these  two  Chris- 
tian nations  came,  several  times,  to  the  terrible  struggles 
of  war,  on  this  Oregon  question.  The  very  air  was 
charged  with  rumors  and  omens  and  anxieties,  so  that 
speeches  and  opinions,  and  even  sentences,  were  powers. 
An  eminent  London  merchant  wrote  about  this  time  to 
a  friend  in  the  United  States :  "  After  the  publication 
of  Mr.  Webster's  speech  here  yesterday  consols  improved. 
The  stock-jobbers  say  that  the  49°  is  about  right,  and 
there  can  be  no  difficulty." 

In  the  territorial  legislature  of  Oregon,  1852-53,  that 
government,  weary  of  waiting  for  more  stately  and  for- 
mal steps,  included  this  island  and  all  the  Haro  archipel- 


WHAT  DID  THE   TREATY  MEAN?  311 

ago  in  one  of  its  counties.  Soon  afterward  the  Hudson 
Bay  Company  took  formal  possession  of  it  for  a  sheep 
ranch.  Oregon  levied  taxes  on  the  property  of  the  Com- 
pany, and  payment  was  refused,  when  the  Oregon  sheriff 
sold  sheep  enough  to  pay  the  taxes.  So  the  local  con- 
flict opened.  Mutual  trespasses  and  recriminations  and 
personal  conflicts  followed  and  multiplied  till  1859,  when 
General  Harney,  Commander  of  the  Department  of  Ore- 
gon, landed  troops  on  the  island,  with  instructions  to 
Captain  Pickett  to  protect  Americans  there  from  maraud- 
ing Indians,  and  from  personal  violence  and  pecuniary 
damage  to  which  they  were  exposed  by  the  agents  and 
workmen  of  the  fur  company.  These  American  forces 
amounted  to  four  hundred  and  sixty-one  persons,  who 
selected  a  good  military  position  and  made  it  defensible 
to  the  best  of  their  ability.  Meanwhile,  in  the  same  isl- 
and, and  under  two  governments,  collisions  were  occur- 
ing  in  the  matter  of  taxes  and  impost  duties,  and  in  civil 
and  criminal  cases  for  the  courts. 

In  this  threatening  juncture  of  affairs,  English  naval 
forces  were  gathered  near  to  the  island,  and  in  a  men- 
acing attitude,  to  the  number  of  five  ships,  carrying  one 
hundred  and  sixty-seven  guns  and  one  thousand  nine 
hundred  and  forty  men.  Protests,  both  civil  and  mili- 
tary, were  made  against  the  occupation  of  the  island 
by  the  American  forces,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
Americans  threatened  to  resist  by  force  any  attempted 
landing  of  English  troops.  The  English  commander 
proposed  a  joint  military  occupation  of  San  Juan,  but 
to  this  Captain  Pickett  replied  that,  "as  a  matter  of 
course,  I,  being  here  under  orders  from  my  govern- 
ment, cannot  allow  any  joint  occupation  until  so  or- 
dered by  my  commanding  general,"  and  should  resist 


312     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

any  attempt  to  land  English  forces.     In  this  direction 
he  had  the  approval  of  his  commander. 

Blood  was  warm  on  both  sides  and  liable  to  flow  on 
the  most  trivial  provocation.  The  spirit  of  those  times 
and  the  critical  poise  in  affairs  may  be  judged  from  a 
passage  in  a  report  of  General  Harney  to  General  Scott : 
"  The  senior  officer  of  three  British  ships  of  war  threat- 
ened to  land  an  overpowering  force  upon  Captain  Pick- 
ett,  who  nobly  replied  that  whether  they  landed  fifty  or 
five  thousand  men  his  conduct  would  not  be  affected  by 
it ;  that  he  would  open  his  fire,  and,  if  compelled,  take 
to  the  woods  fighting  ;  and  so  satisfied  were  the  British 
officers  that  such  would  be  his  course,  they  hesitated  in 
putting  their  threat  into  execution." 

All  this  contrasts  painfully  with  the  satisfaction  and 
confidence  and  happy  augury  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  when 
he  announced  the  consummation  of  the  Oregon  Treaty 
thirteen  years  before  in  the  House  of  Commons.  He 
was  making  his  final  speech  for  his  retiring  ministry : 
"  The  governments  of  two  great  nations,  impelled,  I  be- 
lieve, by  the  public  opinion  of  each  country  in  favor  of 
peace  —  by  that  opinion  which  ought  to  guide  and  in- 
fluence statesmen  —  have,  by  moderation,  by  mutual 
compromise,  averted  the  dreadful  calamity  of  war  between 
two  nations  of  kindred  origin  and  common  language,  the 
breaking  out  of  which  might  have  involved  the  civilized 
world  in  general  conflict.  A  single  year,  perhaps  a  single 
month,  of  such  a  war  would  have  been  more  costly  than 
the  value  of  the  whole  territory  that  was  the  object  of  dis- 
pute. But  this  evil  has  been  averted  consistently  with 
perfect  honor  on  the  part  of  the  American  government, 
and  on  the  part  of  those  who  have  at  length  closed,  I 
trust,  every  cause  of  dissension  between  the  two  coun- 


WHAT  DID  THE  TREATY  MEAN?  313 

tries.  .  .  .  Sir,  I  do  cordially  rejoice  that,  in  surrender- 
ing power  at  the  feet  of  a  majority  of  this  House,  I  have 
the  opportunity  of  giving  them  the  official  assurance  that 
every  cause  of  quarrel  with  that  great  country  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic  is  amicably  terminated." 

Mr.  Campbell,  the  boundary  commissioner  for  the 
United  States,  was  quite  embarrassed  by  the  action  of 
General  Harney  in  occupying  San  Juan,  and  was  made 
anxious  for  results  when  he  ascertained  that  the  General 
had  acted  without  specific  instructions  from  Washington. 
The  President,  also,  withheld  his  approval  of  the  com- 
mander in  this  act,  and  expressed  the  hope  that  he  had 
taken  possession  of  the  island  for  the  protection  of  Amer- 
ican citizens  and  interests  alone,  and  with  no  reference 
to  territorial  possession.  The  General  asserted  that  the 
relative  claims  of  the  two  governments  to  the  title  had 
nothing  to  do  with  his  occupation  of  the  island. 

In  the  profound  gravity  of  the  crisis,  when  the  two 
great  nations  might  be  plunged  into  war  at  any  moment, 
General  Scott  was  sent  to  the  field  of  action,  and  ar- 
rived late  in  1859.  He  went  out  with  instructions  to 
avert  violent  collision  between  the  excited  parties  on  the 
ground,  and  to  bring  about  joint  occupation  of  the  island 
in  dispute,  till  the  boundary  line  could  be  run.  This 
was  simply  an  effort  to  carry  out  in  good  faith  the 
conventions  of  1818  and  1827,  the  intent  and  spirit  of 
which  rash  men  on  both  sides  had  disregarded. 

The  course  of  General  Harney  was  peculiarly  offen- 
sive to  the  English,  but  Lord  Lyons  expressed  satis- 
faction in  learning  that  he  "  did  not  act  on  that  occa- 
sion upon  any  order  from  the  United  States  govern- 
ment, but  entirely  on  his  own  responsibility."  It  was 
thought  best,  however,  to  withdraw  him  from  his  com- 


314    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

mand  in  the  northwest,  and  he  was  assigned  to  an- 
other post.  Some  months  prior  to  this,  General  Scott 
and  Governor  Douglas  of  Vancouver  and  its  dependen- 
cies effected  an  arrangement  for  the  joint  occupation  of 
San  Juan  by  a  hundred  armed  men  of  each  party.  Thus 
the  local  excitement  subsided,  and  as  the  boundary  com- 
missioners had  failed  in  their  work,  the  Oregon  boun- 
dary question  reverted  to  the  high  officers  of  the  two 
governments :  Lord  John  Russell,  the  British  Foreign 
Secretary  of  State,  Lord  Lyons,  British  Minister  at 
Washington,  and  Lewis  Cass,  the  American  Secretary  of 
State,  and  George  M.  Dallas,  the  Minister  to  England. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE    EMPEROR    WILLIAM    AND    ARBITRATION. 

AFTER  elaborate  and  exhaustive  correspondence,  end- 
ing in  failure  to  interpret  the  treaty  of  1846  and  agree 
on  a  boundary,  Minister  Lyons  wrote  to  Secretary  Cass, 
that  "the  argument  on  both  sides  being  nearly  ex- 
hausted, and  neither  party  having  succeeded  in  produc- 
ing conviction  on  the  other,  the  question  can  only  be 
settled  by  arbitration."  Lord  Lyons  proposed  the  King 
of  the  Netherlands,  or  of  Sweden  and  Norway,  or  the 
President  of  the  Federal  Council  of  Switzerland,  as  the 
arbiter.  This  was  December  10,  1860. 

This  English  proposal  was  declined  by  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  and  for  various  reasons  that 
need  not  here  be  spread  out  in  detail.  For  ten  years 
more  this  vexing  question  had  fitful  slumbers  and  spas- 
modic wakings.  Discussions  in  Congress  and  Parlia- 
ment, conferences  formal  and  informal,  and  diplomatic 
notes  between  high  officials,  extended  the  painful  length 
of  the  struggle  for  another  decade.  The  whole  was 
narrowed  to  a  finality,  that  apparently  waited  for  only 
one  move  more;  All  hearts  were  at  length,  lightened 
and  all  honor  insured,  when,  May  8,  1871,  the  question 
was  given  for  arbitration  and  finality,  beyond  appeal,  to 
his  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Germany. 

The  question  between  the  two  nations  was  at  last  very 
single  and  separate,  and  exceedingly  earnest.  The  is- 


316      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

sue,  in  its  final  shape,  was  between  two  channels.  Eng- 
land claimed  the  Rosario,  near  the  continent,  and  the 
United  States  claimed  the  De  Haro,  near  Vancouver ; 
and  the  treaty  of  arbitration  stipulated  that  the  Em- 
peror William  "  shall  decide  thereupon  finally  and  with- 
out appeal,  which  of  these  claims  is  most  in  accordance 
with  the  true  interpretation  of  the  treaty  of  June  15, 
1846."  That  treaty  called  for  "the  middle  of  the 
channel  which  separates  the  Continent  from  Vancouver 
Island." 

It  will  be  noticed  that  this  treaty  had  waited  twenty- 
five  years  for  its  execution,  under  the  finesse  and  delays 
which  a  possible  ambiguity  encouraged.  The  English 
hesitation  over  the  final  move  in  the  game  is  not  strange. 
Two  hundred  years,  almost  exactly,  from  the  grant  of 
the  charter  to  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  by  Charles  II. 
in  1670,  that  huge  monopoly  of  half  a  continent  had 
been  moving  westward  with  the  irresistible  and  grind- 
ing force  of  a  glacier.  It  must  stop  on  the  Pacific,  and 
in  the  end  the  narrow  question  arose:  What  islands 
must  be  yielded  and  what  ones  may  be  held?  From 
claims  for  areas  like  England  on  the  mainland,  they 
had  come  down  to  islands  and  acres. 

Around  the  conclusion,  when  it  came,  there  was  the 
gathering  of  the  august  and  solemn  and  sad.  The  two 
leading  nations  of  the  world  held  their  own  wills  in 
abeyance,  and  asked  a  third  to  put  them  under  order 
and  beyond  appeal.  There  was  a  sublime  humiliation 
in  the  act.  For  nearly  a  century  these  two  nations  had 
been  in  controversy  over  boundary  questions.  The 
younger  was  born  into  it  and  was  not  yet  free.  To 
crown  the  struggle  of  a  hundred  years,  and  thus  sum  up 
and  conclude  the  work  of  three  getieratious,  and  to  do 


THE  EMPEROR  WILLIAM  AND  ARBITRATION.    317 

it  peacefully,  ;s  an  act  for  the  gravest  reflections  and  the 
most  profound  joy. 

The  final  interpretation  and  execution  of  the  treaty 
of  184G  had  much  of  the  sad  to  overshadow  it.  Twenty- 
five  years  had  waited  for  that  end.  Sixteen  members 
of  the  British  Cabinet  had  framed  it  and  offered  it  to 
the  United  States.  Sir  Robert  Peel,  Lord  Aberdeen, 
and  all  that  Cabinet,  save  one,  were  now  dead.  Of  the 
American  high  officials  who  shared  in  its  construction 
and  adoption,  the  President  and  Vice-President,  and 
Minister  to  England,  and  Secretary  of  State,  and  all  the 
Cabinet,  save  one,  were  now  gone.  Upon  the  only  sur- 
vivor, the  Honorable  George  Bancroft,  historian,  diplom- 
atist, and  scholar,  and,  when  the  treaty  was  formed, 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  it  was  devolved  to  present  the 
American  case  to  the  Emperor. 

We  note  here  what  is  too  often  forgotten  in  honoring 
single  persons  for  single  achievements.  No  one  is  great 
by  himself.  Greatness  is  an  accumulation  to  which 
many  contribute  and  one  crowns  it.  In  the  total  and 
final  honor,  therefore,  the  last  actor  is  entitled  to  only 
a  proportion,  an  undivided  and  indefinite  moiety.  Since 
1783  many  of  the  best  statesmen  and  patriots  in  the 
United  States  had  been  preparing  the  way  and  the 
material  for  Mr.  Bancroft's  successful  and  concluding 
work.  As  Secretary  of  the  Navy  he  was  of  the  Cabinet 
of  1846  that  advised  the  treaty,  and  was  now  the  only 
one  left  to  expound  it  to  the  German  Emperor. 

This  he  did  in  an  exhaustive  and  admirable  Memo- 
rial of  one  hundred  and  twenty  octavo  pages.  After 
referring,  in  its  graceful  and  beautiful  exordium,  to  these 
changes  which  death  had  wrought  in  the  ranks  of  the 
original  laborers  on  the  treaty,  he  says  :  — 


318      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

"  I  alone  remain,  and  after  finishing  the  three  score 
years  and  ten  that  are  the  days  of  our  years,  am  se- 
lected by  my  country  to  uphold  its  rights.  Six  times  the 
United  States  had  received  the  offer  of  arbitration  on 
their  northwestern  boundary,  and  six  times  had  refused 
to  refer  a  point  where  the  importance  was  so  great  and 
the  right  so  clear.  But  when  consent  was  obtained  to 
bring  the  question  before  your  Majesty,  my  country 
resolved  to  change  its  policy,  and  in  the  heart  of  Europe, 
before  a  tribunal  from  which  no  judgment  but  a  just  one 
can  emanate,  to  explain  the  solid  foundation  of  our  de- 
mand, and  the  principles  of  moderation  and  justice  by 
which  we  have  been  governed." 

Like  all  great  works  the  process  in  arbitration  was 
very  simple.  Each  party  submitted  its  case  in  print, 
with  all  documents  and  maps  attached  that  were  thought 
to  be  necessary.  Then  each  party  received  the  Memo- 
rial of  the  other,  and  put  in  a  printed  reply  to  it,  so  that 
each  furnished  two  papers  to  the  Emperor.  These  four 
papers  his  Majesty  laid  before  three  eminent  jurists, 
also  experts  in  such  matters,  on  which  they  bestowed 
separate  attention  and  gave  separate  opinion.  The  Em- 
peror gave  to  the  subject  his  personal  attention,  and 
most  careful  study  and  deliberation. 

After  a  full  and  faithful  examination  of  the  case  the 
Emperer  decreed  this  award  :  "  Most  in  accordance  with 
the  true  interpretations  of  the  treaty  concluded  on  the 
15th  of  June,  1846,  between  the  Governments  of  Her 
Britannic  Majesty  and  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
is  the  claim  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  that 
the  boundary  line  between  the  territories  of  Her  Bri- 
tannic Majesty  and  the  United  States  should  be  drawn 
through  the  Haro  Channel.  Authenticated  by  our  auto- 


-THE  EMPEROR  WILLIAM  AND  ARBITRATION.    319 

graph  signature,  and  the  impression  of  the  Imperial 
Great  Seal.  Given  at  Berlin,  October  the  21st,  1872." 

So  the  end  came,  and  an  end  to  many  things.  Two 
great  nations  had  divided  North  America  between  them 
and  fixed  the  line  of  demarkation.  For  ninety  years 
they  had  been  in  conference  to  put  a  treaty  line  of  di- 
vision on  paper,  and  now  they  had  marked  it  on  the 
earth  by  the  stars  and  an  immutable  ocean  current.  The 
end  of  boundary  questions  between  the  two  nations  was 
reached.  Diplomacy,  geography,  anxieties,  rivalries, 
and  almost  wars,  were  no  more.  Land  and  water, 
stretching  across  the  continent  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific,  were  divided  between  the  two  governments. 

From  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  1783,  to  the  arbitration  at 
Berlin,  1872,  it  would  be  quite  difficult  to  state  the  num- 
ber of  diplomatic  conferences  between  the  two  nations 
on  this  boundary  question.  Never  before,  apparently, 
or  at  other  times,  had  the  English  language  been  so 
tested  to  embody  agreements  in  inevitable  words.  What, 
in  the  last  instance,  the  parties  were  four  years  in  writ- 
ing, they  were  twenty-six  years  in  interpreting,  and  then 
they  failed.  But  the  march  of  rival  empires  across  the 
New  World  came  to  an  end  at  Berlin,  when  the  Em- 
peror William  put  his  autograph  to  a  few  simple  sen- 
tences of  interpretation,  and  established  a  boundary. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

THE    WHITMAN    MASSACRE. 

THIS  book  is  designed  to  be  a  history  of  the  con- 
cession of  Oregon,  and  not  a  history  of  Oregon.  Yet 
it  would  seem  to  be  incomplete  if  the  tragic  end  of  the 
man  who  saved  Oregon  to  the  United  States  were  not 
outlined.  It  is  an  exceedingly  painful  record  in  human 
annals,  and  shows  how  much  the  benighted  natives 
there  needed  the  religion  of  "  good  will  toward  men." 

Among  the  chapters  of  human  tragedies  this  is  one 
of  the  most  tragic.  The  persons  killed  were  the  mis- 
sionaries of  Christ ;  they  who  killed  them  were  the  poor 
Indians  whom  they  were  instructing  and  lifting  into  the 
light  and  love  and  daily  life  of  God's  children ;  many 
who  looked  on,  or  stood  afar  off,  knowing  it  and  not  in- 
terfering, were  white  people,  and  some  of  them  the  of- 
ficial servants  of  the  church.  The  massacre  ran  riot 
through  eight  days,  and  Dr.  Marcus  Whitman  and  wife, 
of  the  American  Board,  and  thirteen  or  more  associates, 
were  savagely  killed  on  the  29th  of  November,  1847, 
and  days  following.  It  was  the  bloody  baptism  of 
Oregon,  by  the  like  of  which  the  most  of  the  Amer- 
ican States  have  come  to  form  the  Union. 

Lacking  only  the  slow  torture  of  hacking  and  flay- 
ing and  burning,  it  stands  among  the  most  atrocious  of 
Indian  atrocities.  The  details,  covering  the  dead  and 
scarcely  less  unfortunate  fifty  captives,  I  will  not  relate, 


THE   WHITMAN  MASSACRE.  321 

though  spread  out  with  painful  and  revolting  minute- 
ness before  me.  As  I  write  the  history  of  the  massacre, 
and  riot  a  drama  of  it,  I  will  not  show  the  poor,  dumb 
wounds,  and  the  rent  and  bloody  garments,  as  at  Caesar's 
funeral. 

To  understand  this  murderous  assault  on  a  Christian 
mission,  and  carry  a  well-balanced  judgment  about  it, 
as  a  part  of  the  history  of  Oregon,  certain  facts  must  be 
taken  into  account,  especially  concerning  the  two  pol- 
icies of  the  English  and  the  Americans  in  regard  to 
the  Indian  country.  The  former,  under  the  Hudson 
Bay  Company,  desired  to  hold  back  the  wilderness  for 
a  game  preserve,  and  use  it  only  for  the  production  of 
furs.  They,  therefore,  kept  out  of  it  the  civilized  grains 
and  grasses,  the  plow  and  hoe,  and  water-wheel.  All 
who  came  to  settle  the  country  and  to  develop  it,  and 
civilize  the  Indians,  the  Company  kept  back.  No 
Europeans  were  admitted  excepting  their  own  servants. 
All  schools  for  the  Indians  were  opposed,  and  almost 
all  Christian  missions,  except  the  Roman  Catholic. 
These  statements  apply  to  the  whole  domain  of  that 
Company  :  the  chartered  part  of  it  took  in  all  the  re- 
gion whose  waters  drain  into  Hudson  Bay,  and  the 
leased  part  took  in  all  north  and  west  of  this  to  the 
Arctic  and  Pacific.  They  were  hoping  and  planning 
for  the  valley  of  the  Oregon.  So  their  purpose  was  to 
hold  forever  for  steel-traps  an  area  one  third  larger 
than  all  Europe.  This  pleased  the  Indian,  specially 
when  intermarriage  and  an  accommodated  life  met  him 
half  way. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Americans  wished  to  build 
the  United  States  on  Indian  lands.  The  factory  dam 
must  take  the  place  of  the  beaver  dam ;  and  wheat  fields 
21 


322      OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

the  place  of  buffalo  ranges  ;  mansions,  of  wigwams. 
This  displeased  the  Indians,  as  they  lost  their  lands  and 
game  and  the  pleasures  of  a  wild  life.  One  policy  was 
to  propagate  wilderness  and  beaver,  and  Indians  and 
half-breeds  to  catch  them  ;  the  other,  civilization  in  its 
highest  type  and  thrift.  No  two  policies  could  come 
more  in  contradiction,  one  fostering  all  the  tastes  and 
habits  of  the  natives,  and  the  other  demanding  a  total 
change  in  the  modes  and  grade  of  life.  Hence  the  fact 
—  so  slow  to  be  understood,  coined  into  a  reproachful 
criticism  on  the  United  States  —  that  the  English  get 
along  much  better  than  the  Americans  with  the  In- 
dians. 

The  English  had  their  own  way  from  1670,  when  the 
fur  company  was  chartered,  till  1834,  when  they  met 
our  pioneer  missionaries  in  the  valley  of  the  Columbia. 
As  our  missions  meant  plows  and  highways  and  fac- 
tories, it  meant  less  fur,  and  corn  instead,  and  school 
books.  From  that  date  their  jealousy  of  the  Americans 
took  a  more  active  and  violent  form.  At  this  time  the 
Company  held  Oregon  almost  absolutely.  No  American 
interest  could  thrive  there,  and  indeed  the  traders  and 
trappers  of  the  Company  had  come  over  the  mountains 
and  were  holding  the  head  waters  of  the  Yellowstone 
and  Missouri.  Meanwhile  the  two  nations  were,  by 
treaty,  to  have  a  joint  occupation  of  Oregon.  When 
the  Company  pleaded  for  a  renewal  of  charter,  one 
strong  plea  was  that  they  had  kept  back  the  Ameri- 
cans. It  would  take  a  volume  to  tell  how  thoroughly 
they  had  done  this. 

At  the  time  of  the  massacre  the  Indians  had  obtained 
from  some  source  the  conviction  that  the  Americans 
wanted  their  lauds,  while  the  English  did  not.  ,More- 


THE   WHITMAN  MASSACRE.  323 

over,  they  felt  that  the  Americans  wished  to  change  the 
entire  life  of  the  Indian  —  his  religious  and  civil  life, 
and  pursuits  and  pleasures,  while  the  English  wished 
only  for  fur,  when  a  civilized  Indian  would  be  a  hinder- 
auce.  So  it  came  to  pass  that  the  English  had  the 
territory  and  the  Indians  on  their  side  when  Americans 
began  in  1834  to  settle  in  Oregon.  Diplomacy  and 
trade,  fraud  and  bloody  violence,  were  used  to  keep 
them  back,  while  the  Company  sought  to  hold  Oregon 
by  bringing  in  colonies  from  the  Red  River  country. 
This  aroused  Dr.  Whitman  to  that  wonderful  ride,  al- 
ready described,  and  he  brought  back  to  the  Columbia 
875  immigrants,  with  200  wagons  and  1,300  head  of 
cattle,  in  1843.  The  two  policies  now  grappled  in  a 
final  struggle.  On  the  one  hand  it  was  beaver  and  In- 
dians and  wilderness  for  a  huge  corporation  and  so 
many  pounds  sterling  dividends ;  on  the  other  it  was  set- 
tlements, domestic  animals,  civilization,  national  wealth. 
The  struggle  was  natural,  as  begun  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  result  inevitable,  as  ended  in  the  nineteenth 
century. 

The  Oregon  Treaty  of  1846,  which  conceded  the 
primitive  American  claim  up  to  the  forty-ninth  parallel, 
brought  disappointment  and  anger  to  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company.  It  left  them  as  foreigners  on  the  American 
side  of  the  boundary,  and  with  stipulations  that  they 
must  leave.  Their  plans  were  a  failure,  as  civilization 
had  conquered  the  wilderness,  and  a  State  called  Ore- 
gon was  soon  to  enter  the  Union.  Then,  what  was  done 
to  settle  it  would  stimulate  the  settlement  of  the  British 
Provinces  over  the  line,  and  the  fur  trade  must  give 
way  to  a  broad  international  commerce  outside  of  their 
charter..  The  Canadian  Pacific  Railroad  of  to-day  is 


324      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

confirmation  of  their  well  founded,  yet  poorly  under- 
stood anticipations  and  fears.  The  thoughtful  could 
foresee  that  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  must  close  its 
affairs.  And  American  enterprise,  pioneered  by  Ameri- 
can missionaries,  had  done  it. 

The  Oregon  Treaty  was  proclaimed  August  5,  1846. 
Three  or  four  months  would  carry  the  news  of  their 
defeat  up  and  down  the  Columbia.  A  year  more  inter- 
vened while  they  were  removing  and  preparing  to  com- 
plete the  transfer  to  their  own  proper  limits,  when  the 
massacre  took  place. 

Must  we  think  it  was  planned  by  intelligent  white 
people  ?  Not  necessarily.  The  general  causes  have 
been  stated,  which  are  enough  to  produce  it,  if  Indian 
nature  be  taken  into  the  account.  He  sympathized  in 
this  case  with  the  fur-trader  in  his  disappointment,  and 
made  it  his  own ;  also,  he  feared,  and  with  the  best  of 
reasons,  that  the  Americans  would  take  his  land.  From 
colonial  times  such  a  condition  of  things  has  been  fol- 
lowed by  Indian  raids.  Every  other  state,  as  well  as 
Oregon  and  Kentucky,  has  its  "  dark  and  bloody 
ground."  It  is  true  the  Spanish,  and  French,  and 
English,  and  Americans  have  each  in  turn  used  the 
Indians  to  destroy  their  enemies.  Many  American 
traders  and  trappers  in  the  Indian  country  had  been 
killed  through  the  influence  of  the  Hudson  Bay  men, 
though  not  perhaps  by  plot  and  contract.  With  the 
rivalry,  monopoly,  and  bloody  hostility  of  that  company 
before  they  lost  the  Oregon  country  by  treaty,  the  scan* 
civilization  of  the  border  is  enough  to  account  for  the 
massacre. 

For  twenty-five  years  and  more  after  the  Revolution, 
our  emigrant  border  was  made  a  reproach  to  civiliza- 


THE   WHITMAN  MASSACRE.  325 

tion  by  the  Indian  raids  that  embittered  Englishmen 
stimulated.  Washington  had  painfully  good  reasons  for 
writing  this  passage  to  Jay  in  August,  1794,  "  There 
does  not  remain  a  doubt  in  the  mind  of  any  well-in- 
formed person  in  this  country,  not  shut  against  convic- 
tion, that  all  the  difficulties  we  encounter  with  the  In- 
dians, their  hostilities,  the  murders  of  helpless  women 
and  innocent  children  along  our  frontiers,  result  from 
the  conduct  of  the  agents  of  Great  Britain  in  this  coun- 
try." 

But  the  history  of  one  period  must  not  be  reedited 
as  the  history  of  a  succeeding  generation.  Indian  mas- 
sacres have  resulted  from  a  variety  of  causes,  and  in 
the  equitable  writing  of  history  this  fact  must  be  re- 
garded. With  the  Indians,  the  powers  of  the  physician 
and  of  the  "  medicine  man,"  were  conjoined  under  a 
thick  veil  of  superstition.  Such  beliefs  as  come  in  this 
guise  expose  the  "  untutored  mind  "  to  the  wildest  fa- 
naticism. In  some  instances  an  epidemic  has  visited  a 
tribe,  and  its  victims  are  beyond  the  saving  power  of 
the  *' medicine  man."  His  inability  to  cure  exposes 
him  to  death ;  he  is  given  a  test  case,  and  under  fail- 
ure to  heal  he  has  sometimes  been  stoned  or  pounded  to 
death. 

This  superstition  in  the  Indian  mind  has  been  at 
times  used  as  a  great  power  in  controlling  him.  In  his 
"  Astoria  "  Irving  gives  an  illustration.  McDougal,  of 
Astor's  company,  who  treacherously  sold  out  Astoria 
to  the  English  traders,  found  much  difficulty  in  pro- 
tecting his  infant  enterprise  against  the  Indians.  lie 
showed  them  a  small  vial,  and  threatened  to  uncork  it 
and  sweep  them  all  off  with  the  smull-pox  that  it  con- 
tained, if  they  gave  him  more  trouble.  The  chiefs,  in 


326     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

alarm  and  horror,  begged  him  to  spare  them,  and  they 
made  all  necessary  promises.1 

A  case  more  in  point  is  given  by  the  Rev.  Jedediah 
Morse,  D.  D.  In  speaking  of  the  L'Arbre  Croche  In- 
dians on  Lake  Michigan,  he  says  :  "  They  are  afraid  to 
have  priests  come  among  them,  because  it  happened 
immediately  after  one  had  visited  them,  about  the  year 
1799,  that  the  small-pox  was  introduced  among  them 
from  Canada,  and  carried  off  nearly  half  their  number. 
They  were  made  to  believe,  by  the  medicine  men,  that 
the  Great  Spirit  "  was  angry  with  them  for  receiving 
this  priest  and  his  instructions,  and  that  this  fatal  dis- 
ease was  sent  among  them  to  punish  them  for  the  of- 
fense." * 

In  the  tenth  chapter  of  this  history  a  fact  is  stated, 
showing  the  amusing  way  in  which  a  Hudson  Bay 
officer  worked  on  the  superstition  of  the  poor  natives, 
and  governed  them  by  the  combination  of  a  music  box, 
magic  lantern,  and  galvanic  battery.  This  mysterious 
power  of  the  white  man  —  and  they  put  the  power  of 
medicine  in  the  same  class  —  the  Indians  connected,  su- 
perstitiously,  with  divine  and  malignant  spirits,  and  they 
feared  and  hated  the  white  agent. 

In  defense  against  the  suggestion  of  some,  that  the 
Indians  were  instigated  to  kill  the  missionaries  because 
they  were  Protestant  heretics,  the  Rev.  J.  B.  A.  Brou- 
illet,  Vicar-General,  makes  this  statement :  "  The  mas- 
sacre at  Waiilatpu  has  not  been  committed  by  the  In- 
dians in  hatred  of  heretics.  If  Americans  only  have 
been  killed,  it  is  only  because  the  war  had  been  de- 

1  Chap.  xii.  p.  125. 

2  Report  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  1820,  on  the  Condition  of  the  In- 
dians.   Appendix,  p.  24. 


THE    WHITMAN  MASSACRE.  327 

• 

clared  against  the  Americans  only,  and  not  against  for- 
eigners, and  it  was  in  their  quality  as  American  citizens, 
and  not  as  Protestants,  that  the  Indians  killed  them." 1 

The  Vicar  would  declare  that  they  were  killed  as  in- 
truders, and  the  general  impression  among  the  Indians, 
that  the  Americans  designed  to  possess  the  country, 
stimulated  the  act.  To  this  agrees  the  statement  of  the 
Honorable  Elwood  Evans  :  "  The  history  of  the  agency 
of  Protestant  missions  in  encouraging  American  settle- 
ment—  the  advent  of  settlers — the  uniform  first  visit 
to  the  Whitman  station  —  the  treaty  of  1846,  which  de- 
cided that  the  days  of  the  occupancy,  by  the  Company, 
of  the  territory  were  numbered,  and  that  they  had  been 
baffled  in  getting  Columbia  River  for  the  line  —  explain 
the  causes  of  chagrin  of  the  Company.  The  policy  of 
the  Company,  pursued  everywhere,  of  making  the  In- 
dian subservient  in  time  of  peace,  auxiliary  in  event 
of  war,  finishes  the  matter.  There  is  no  necessity  to 
charge  that  the  Indians  who  killed  the  inmates  of 

O 

Waiilatpu,  on  the  specified  occasion,  were  directly  in- 
cited to  that  act."  2 

White  encroachments  had  been  a  fruitful  cause  of 
Indian  massacres,  from  Massachusetts  Bay  westward ; 
it  remains  still  a  question  whether  it  was  mainly,  par- 
tially, or  not  all  the  cause  in  this  case.  Other  and 
strong  causes  ask  for  a  consideration. 

In  1836  a  Cayuse  chief  lost  three  of  his  children  by 
fever  in  a  mission  school.  Other  pupils  sickened  and 
died,  which  "  created  a  prejudice  against  the  school 
among  the  Indians,  which  it  was  not  easy  to  overcome." 

The  American  Board,  in  their  Report  for  1848,  say  : 

1  Thirty-Fifth  Congress,  1859.     House  Document  No.  38,  p.  51. 

2  Evans's  History,  chap.  xix. 


328     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

"  The  immediate  occasion  of  this  outbreak  of  savage 
violence  may  probably  be  found  in  the  prevailing  sick- 
ness among  the  Indians." 

The  latest  marked  judgment  on  this  most  sad  tragedy 
is,  that  "  Probably  the  immediate  cause  was  that  im- 
migrants brought  the  measles  and  other  diseases  into  the 
country,  which  the  Indians  caught,  and  which,  greatly 
aggravated  by  their  imprudence,  carried  off  a  large 
number  of  them.  Some  pretended  that  Dr.  Whitman 
was  giving  them  poison,  while  others  expressed  their 
unabated  confidence  in  him.  To  test  the  case  it  is  said 
that  three  persons,  who  were  sick,  were  selected,  and  he 
was  asked  to  give  them  some  medicine.  Having  done 
so,  it  is  also  said  they  all  died,  and  that  this  so  incensed 
the  Indians  that  they  began  the  work  of  death  immedi- 
ately." l 

Studious  and  candid  men  have  carefully  weighed  the 
mixed  evidence  as  to  the  complicity  of  white  men  in  the 
affair,  but  with  no  unanimous  conclusion.  After  this 
lapse  of  time,  and  with  the  testimony  filtered  out  of  per- 
sonal feelings  and  local  pre-judgments,  a  change  of  venue 
to  the  extreme  East  may  have  advantages.  Certainly 
these  general  facts  following  will  be  allowed  all  the 
weight  to  which  they  are  entitled. 

The  rival  nations  held  widely  different  policies  —  wil- 
derness and  civilization.  The  Indians  made  a  tolerable 
comparison  of  the  two,  and  had  a  decided  preference  for 
wilderness  and  its  advocates.  They  recognized  the  im- 
ported diseases  of  white  men,  and  were  very  superstitious 
as  to  their  causes  and  cures.  Disease  and  the  healing 
art,  and  their  connection  with  good  aud  evil  spirits,  were 

1  History  of  Indian  Missions  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  By  Rev.  Myron 
Eells,  1882,  pp.  21,  53,  54. 


THE   WHITMAN  MASSACRE.  329 

so  blended  in  their  religion  as  to  make  them  susceptible 
of  the  most  extravagant  fanaticism.  Therefore,  (he  en- 
tangling circumstances  of  the  Indians  on  the  Columbia, 
under  two  rival  peoples  and  conflicting  policies,  and 
their  general  character  as  uncivilized  and  superstitious, 
will  be  taken  into  account  in  assigning  the  causes  of  the 
Whitman  Massacre. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

THE    OREGON    OP    TO-DAY. 

IT  remains  to  give,  in  summary,  the  condition  of  the 
country  whose  concession  to  the  United  States  has  now- 
been  outlined.  Properly  and  comprehensively  this  coun- 
try was  Oregon,  and  Washington  and  Idaho  Territories 
The  three  civil  sections  constitute  a  vast  block  in  the* 
American  domain,  with  British  Columbia  on  the  north, 
Montana  and  Dakota  on  the  east,  Utah,  Nevada,  and  Cal- 
ifornia on  the  south,  and  the  Pacific  on  the  west.  The 
area  is  251,562  square  miles  —  more  than  double  that  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  thirty-two  times  the  size 
of  Massachusetts,  whose  citizen  founded  our  claim  to  it 
in  the  discovery  of  its  great  river.  Their  total  popula- 
tion was  about  280,000,  by  the  late  census,  of  which  Or- 
egon had  about  175,000.  The  three  sections  have,  by 
nature  and  development,  many  characteristics  in  com- 
mon, and  as  settlement  and  improvement  go  on,  they 
will  show  increasing  similarity,  and  the  same  general  at- 
tractions to  immigrants. 

This  region,  the  original  Oregon  of  the  treaty  of  1846, 
is  larger  than  three  New  Englands  by  the  excess  of  six 
states  like  Massachusetts,  and  in  most  respects  for  human 
homes  and  national  wealth,  it  is  naturally  superior  to 
New  England.  In  climate,  soil,  and  mineral,  both  prec- 
ious and  practical,  it  leads  promptly.  In  cereals,  meats, 
fish,  and  vegetables,  it  is  also  naturally  the  leader  of  New 


THE  OREGON  OF  TO-DAT.  331 

England,  as  its  products  and  exports  are  steadily  show- 
ing. 

Its  facilities  for  foreign  commerce  may  not,  at  first, 
seem  so  favorable,  from  its  westward  outlook ;  but  it  is 
nearer,  by  the  breadth  of  a  continent,  to  the  greut  mar- 
ket of  the  old  East,  while  railways  are  treating  water- 
commerce  quite  cavalierly,  and  shortening  space  and 
time  in  the  exchange  of  goods.  At  Portland,  Oregon, 
one  in  the  Chinese,  Australian,  and  general  Pacific  trade, 
is  10,000  miles  nearer  to  his  Asiatic  markets  than  he 
would  be  at  New  York. 

Had  the  same  energy  worked  for  two  centuries  on 
our  northwest  that  has  been  expended  on  our  north- 
east, the  contrast  between  the  two  sections  would  now  be 
extremely  marked  in  favor  of  the  former.  Immigration 
and  years  only  are  wanting  to  show  how  highly  nature 
has  favored  the  country  in  question.  The  wide  range 
of  the  Oregon  block,  about  four  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  miles  square,  furnishes  a  great  variety  of  natural 
qualities  in  its  mingled  mountains  and  valleys  and  prai- 
ries, and  so  a  wide  range  in  resources  for  human  use 
and  enjoyment.  Probably  few  sections  of  the  same  area 
in  the  world  bring  the  grand  and  sublime  *in  mountain 
scenery  so  near  to  vast  and  rich  prairie  lawns  and  far- 
reaching  slopes  which  invite  to  combined  rural  and  city 
life. 

The  surprising  climate  of  this  section  will  show  that 
no  natural  products  can  be  denied  it  that  may  be  else- 
where found  in  the  United  States  farther  north  than  the 
northern  latitude  of  Virginia.  For,  the  line  of  average 

o  o 

heat  or  cold  which  passes  through  northern  Virginia  runs 
northerly  and  westerly  by  Pittsburg ;  forty  miles 
south  of  Lake  Erie,  and  sixty  south  of  Chicago ;  a  little 


332    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

north  of  Rock  Island  into  Iowa ;  through  southwestern 
Minnesota  into  Dakota  ;  thence  northwest  through  the 
upper  and  eastern  corner  of  Montana,  and  about  sixty 
miles  over  the  line  into  British  territory ;  thence  by  a 
great  curve  cutting  northwestern  Montana  and  the  ex- 
treme north  of  Idaho ;  and,  continuing  midway  and  north- 
erly, it  passes  through  Washington  Territory  into  Brit- 
ish Columbia,  and  leaves  the  continent  about  two  hun- 
dred miles  north  of  the  northern  boundary  of  the  United 
States.  Along  this  line  the  mean  or  average  annual 
temperature  is  fifty  degrees,  and  sections  cut  by  it  have 
the  average  heat  and  cold  of  northern  Virginia.  It 
passes  through  the  great  wheat  belt  of  North  America. 
Other  things  being  equal,  therefore,  the  grains  and  fruits 
and  vegetables  which  may  be  raised  on  this  line  in  Vir- 
ginia, or  Ohio,  or  Illinois,  or  Iowa,  may  be  raised  in 
Dakota  and  Montana  and  Washington. 

As  to  Oregon,  it  is  left  wholly  on  the  south  of  this 
line.  Says  Hugh  Small,  in  his  "Oregon  and  Her  Re- 
sources," —  "  There  is  scarcely  a  grain,  fruit,  vegetable, 
grass,  tree,  plant,  or  flower,  that  grows  in  the  United 
States,  or  in  Europe,  but  some  portions  of  the  soil  of 
Oregon  wilt  raise  ,to  perfection,  with  fair  cultivation." 
The  authority  for  this  statement  of  climate  is  of  1870, 
and  is  based  on  "  Blodgett's  Tables."  It  may  be  added 
that  in  mountain  elevations,  one  thousand  feet  in  height 
are  equal  to  three  degrees  of  northing  in  latitude. 

This  fact  as  to  the  line  of  average  temperature  will 
prepare  the  way  for  other  facts  that  otherwise  might 
seem  incredible.  As  a  rule  in  both  Oregon  and  Wash- 
ington stock  does  well  through  the  year  in  the  open  air, 
foraging  on  the  abundant  natural  pasturage.  The  bunch 
grass  matures  in  July,  and  is  hayed  by  the  sun  uncut. 


THE  OREGON  OF  TO-DAY.  333 

Horses  and  sheep  may  be  trusted  to  it  for  good  winter- 
ing, while  it  is  good  policy  to  provide  some  hay  and  shel- 
ter for  horned  cattle.  The  snow  is  light,  and  in  some 
of  the  counties  in  Oregon  it  has  not  covered  the  ground 
for  three  consecutive  days  for  a  score  of  years. 

The  one  third  of  Oregon  west  of  the  Cascade  Moun- 
tains has  a  much  milder  climate  and  more  productive 
soil  than  the  eastern  two  thirds,  as  it  has  the  warmth  and 
rains  and  fogs  thrown  on  it  by  the  Pacific.  On  the 
coast  the  rainfall  is  about  sixty-seven  inches  ;  in  the 
Willamette  valley  about  fifty  ;  in  the  Columbia  valley 
east  of  the  Cascades  about  twenty  ;  and  in  the  great  basin, 
of  the  southeast,  including  the  famous  Lava  Beds  of  the 
Modoc  war,  an  average  of  twelve  inches.  In  eastern 
Oregon  much  dependence  must  be  placed  on  irrigation 
for  agriculture. 

The  warmth  of  the  coast  belt  is  seen  in  the  fact  that 
the  Columbia,  as  far  up  as  the  mouth  of  the  Willamette, 
one  hundred  miles,  and  that  river  itself,  have  shown  no 
ice  thicker  than  window  glass  since  1862.  The  mouth 
of  the  Willamette  is  about  two  hundred  miles  farther 
north  than  Boston.  Alexander  Rattray,  surgeon  to 
the  English  navy  at  Esquimalt,  Vancouver's  Island, 
1860-61,  reports  that  "  snow  fell  on  twelve  days  only, 
.  .  .  and  the  thermometer  fell  only  eleven  times  below 
freezing  during  the  year."  1 

*  Surgeon  Rattray  gives  the  following  table,  made  by  himself, 
1860-61:  — 


Place.  Latitude. 

Victoria,  Vancouver's  Island.  48°24'  51.77° 

New  York.  40°23'  51.58° 

Halifax.  44°39'  40.08° 

Quebec.  46°48'  41.85° 

Montreal.  45°31'  45.76° 

Toronto.  43°40'  44.81° 


334    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

The  causes  of  this  warm  temperature,  four  and  five 
hundred  miles  farther  north  than  New  York,  are  two. 
About  seventy  per  cent,  of  the  winds  on  that  coast  are 
from  the  southwest,  and  carry  the  heat  from  the  tropics 
far  inland,  even  to  Dakota.  Then  the  "  black  stream  " 
—  Kuro-siwo  —  starting  off  southeastern  Asia,  passes 
up  by  the  Asiatic  coast,  and,  dividing  on  the  Aleutian 
Archipelago,  the  eastern  half  is  forced  down  the  Alaskan 
and  northwest  coast,  carrying  a  large  body  of  torrid 
water,  which  makes  its  warmth  felt  far  into  the  interior. 
This  warming  force  may  be  estimated  somewhat  by  the 
fact  that  when  fully  formed  off  the  coast  of  China  and 
Japan  this  stream  is  four  hundred  miles  wide,  with  a 
flow  of  four  miles  an  hour  in  sections  of  it. 

An  illustrative  fact  may  be  here  introduced  from  Eu- 
rope, made  by  the  effects  of  the  Gulf  Stream.  Ham- 
merfest,  in  Norway,  is  in  latitude  seventy-one,  yet  the 
warm  waters  of  the  Gulf  Stream  of  the  Atlantic  have 
such  an  effect  as  to  keep  its  harbor  free  from  ice.  That 
harbor,  though  1,950  miles  farther  north  than  Boston, 
has  never  been  known  to  be  closed  by  ice.  Also,  on 
the  Alaskan  coast,  the  force  of  this  torrid  current  is  so 
great  that  at  Sitka,  a  thousand  miles  farther  north  than 
Boston,  ice  cannot  be  found  and  stored  for  summer  use, 
the  average  winter  cold  being  two  degrees  above  freez- 
ing.1 Of  the  ability  of  a  warm  ocean  stream  to  carry  its 
heat,  despite  the  cold  of  the  ocean  through  which  it 
flows,  Professor  Bache  makes  the  statement  that  "at  the 
very  bottom  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  when  its  waters  at  the 
surface  were  80°  in  temperature,  the  instruments  of 

1Here  it  will  be  noticed  that  while  Victoria,  over  against  the  northern 
portion  of  Washington,  is  550  miles  farther  north  than  New  York  city, 
its  average  warmth  for  a  year  is  greater  than  at  New  York. 


THE  OREGON  OF  TO-DAY.  335 

the  Coast  Survey  recorded  a  temperature  as  low  as  35° 
Fahrenheit." 

Sovereignty  and  organized  government  in  Oregon 
were  assumed  by  the  American  settlers  in  1843.  This 
was  in  anticipation  of  the  great  immigration  of  eight 
hundred  and  seventy -five  persons  under  Dr.  Whitman  in 
the  autumn.  That  overwhelming  number,  strengthening 
the  government  born  of  exigencies  under  natural  and 
local  rights,  practically  closed  the  question  of  possession, 
so  long  in  dispute,  for  the  United  States,  which  became 
settled  by  treaty  three  years  later. 

A  territorial  government  was  granted  in  1849,  cover- 
ing all  of  the  original  Oregon.  In  1859  Oregon  became 
a  state  in  the  Union,  with  its  present  limits.  This  left 
Washington,  including  Idaho  then,  under  the  territorial 
government,  and  so  it  remained  till  1863,  when  Idaho 
received  a  government  of  its  own. 

The  population  of  Oregon  in  1850  was  13,294;  in 
1860,  52,465  ;  in  1870,  90,923  ;  and  the  census  of  1880 
gives  it  as  174,767.  In  the  increase  of  population  by 
immigration  Oregon  has  not  grown  according  to  its 
merits  and  natural  desirableness.  Several  causes  con- 
spired to  this  result.  Except  Alaska,  it  has  been  the 
most  distant  and  inaccessible  section  of  the  Union.  Prior 
to  tke  opening  of  the  Union  and  Central  Pacific  Rail- 
road, it  was  three  months  off  by  land  and  very  much 
more  by  Cape  Horn,  and  tedious  of  access  by  the  Isth- 
mus. When  emigrants  could  finally  go  by  rail  to  San 
Francisco,  a  staging  of  four  hundred  miles,  or  steaming 
of  anything  but  pacific  waters  offered  a  serious  barrier, 
while  the  gold  fields  of  California  were  more  attractive 
than  the  slower  but  surer  industries  of  Oregon. 

Moreover,  the  productions  of  that  distant  region,  how- 


336    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

ever  abundant,  had  but  little  commercial  value,  while 
markets  were  inaccessible.  It  was  in  the  condition  of 
the  Middle  States,  before  government  roads  and  canals 
and  railways  offered  purchasers  to  their  burdens  of  prod- 
uce, and  wheat  decayed  in  the  stacks  because  it  would 
not  pay  to  haul  and  sell  it  for  twenty-five  cents  a  bushel. 
The  through  opening  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad 
will  recreate  Oregon,  as  earlier  creative  processes  once 
came  in  upon  the  unfinished  world,  when  it  stood  "  out 
of  the  water  and  in  the  water,"  awkwardly  waiting  to  be 
finished. 

The  agricultural  products  of  Oregon  have  been  named, 
but  special  mention  should  be  made  of  its  wheat  crop. 
This  is  the  leading  staple,  and  is  noted  for  its  unusual 
weight,  being  often  from  five  to  nine  pounds  above  the 
standard  weight  of  sixty  pounds  to  the  bushel.  Small 
gives  the  average  for  fair  farming  in  the  Willamette  val- 
ley at  thirty  bushels  to  the  acre,  which  is  double  the  av- 
erage for  the  United  States.  The  harvest  of  1881  gave 
a  surplus  for  the  general  market  of  10,000,000  of  bush- 
els, or  300,000  tons.  Of  this  the  region  east  of  the 
Cascades  produced  120,000  tons,  and  western  Oregon 
and  Washington  the  rest.  The  grains  following  wheat 
in  quantity  of  product  are  oats,  barley,  corn,  rye,  and 
buckwheat,  and  in  very  satisfactory  yield.  Thegtotal 
product  of  the  six  has  risen  from  about  two  millions  of 
bushels  in  1860  to  about  thirteen  millions  in  1880. 

The  amount  of  arable  land  will  for  a  long  time  be  a 
question  of  local  option  with  the  farmer  of  energy  and 
thrift.  Vast  valleys  stand  assigned  of  nature  to  the 
plow,  as  truly  as  the  unlimited  wheat  fields  of  Minne- 
sota and  Dakota.  Leading  among  these  is  the  Willa- 
mette, with  its  5,000,000  of  acres  ;  then  the  Umpqua,  one 


THE  OREGON  OF  TO-DAY.  337 

half  as  large ;  the  Rogue  River  valley,  a  little  smaller  ; 
the  Uraatilla  ;  the  Grande  Romle,  about  275,000  acres; 
the  Walla  Walla,  Klamath,  John  Day,  Powder,  Jordan, 
Palouse,  Yakima,  Spokan,  and  others.  By  the  census 
of  1880  Oregon  showed  16,217  farms,  and  their  products 
are  tabled  at  a  cash  value  of  $13,234,548.  The  stable 
wealth  of  Oregon  shows  one  index  in  the  estimated  worth 
of  these  farms  at  $56,908,575. 

Writers  of  compends  and  travelling  observers  speak 
of  sections  of  our  northwest  as  arid  plains,  desert  region, 
lava  beds,  sage  land,  and  otherwise  condemned  land. 
The  man  who  says  this,  as  well  as  the  land  of  which  it 
is  said,  must  be  regarded  in  any  faithful  statement  about 
that  country.  The  Swede,  the  Swiss,  and  the  New 
Englander  might  look  on  the  land  most  favorably,  as 
also  the  man  of  will  and  work  from  any  nationality  or 
state. 

But  from  our  earliest  geographical  childhood  the  Great 
American  Desert  has  been  contracting  and  retreating. 
In  1806  Lieutenant  Pike,  in  government  explorations, 
swept  over  the  prairies  from  St.  Paul  and  the  heads  of 
the  Mississippi  to  Colorado,  and  reported  those  magnifi- 
cent plains  as  a  desert  barrier  placed  by  Providence  to 
restrain  the  American  people  from  a  thin  diffusion  and 
ruin!  In  1819  Lieutenant  Long,  in  similar  service, 
crowded  the  "  desert "  into  the  country  west  of  the 
meridian  of  Omaha,  and  made  the  region  between  it  and 
the  Rocky  Mountains  unfit  for  cultivation. 

In  the  memorable  Congressional  debates  in  1842,  Mc- 
Duffie  had  ascertained  "  that  seven  hundred  miles  this 
side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  is  uninhabitable,"  and  only 
a  "  tunnel  through  mountains  five  or  six  hundred  miles 
iu  extent"  would  put  us  into  Oregon.  For  agricultural 
22 


838    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

purposes  he  would  not  "  give  a  pinch  of  snuff  for  the 
whole  territory." 

Now,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  more  magnificent 
farm  lands  than  those  in  western  Oregon  and  Washing- 
ton, and  the  "  desert  "  is  shrinking  on  both  sides  before 
energetic  settlers.  On  the  Government  Map  of  1882, 
already  referred  to,  "  the  Great  American  Desert "  is 
located  to  the  west  of  Salt  Lake  and  adjoining  it.  It 
appears  like  a  body  crowded  and  cornered  into  a  very 
irregular  shape,  with  an  area,  possibly,  one  third  larger 
than  Rhode  Island.  In  the  days  of  our  youth  it  must 
have  occupied  thousands  of  square  miles  just  over  the 
Missouri.  It  is  believed  that  arable  lands  will  increase 
as  fast  as  the  plows  are  offered  to  them  for  yet  a  long  pe- 
riod. The  basin  of  the  Columbia  is  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  by  five  hundred  miles,  and  the  fertility  of  it  is 
a  discovery  of  late  years.  Large  tracts  of  it  stood  long 
on  the  maps  of  United  States  surveyors  as  "  unfit  for 
cultivation."  The  experiment  of  a  thoughtful  farmer 
brought  the  despised  land  to  the  front  for  wheat  farms. 
Now  it  is  well  understood  that  where  the  bunch-grass 
grows  wheat  will  flourish,  and  of  such  lands  there  are 
now  boundless  tracts  devoted  to  stock-raising  in  Oregon 
and  Washington. 

Peaches,  pears,  apples,  plums,  cherries,  grapes,  and, 
indeed,  generally,  the  fruits  of  the  temperate  zone,  flour- 
ish in  the  lower  lands.  The  smaller  fruits  of  the  gar- 
den are  abundant  and  ready  for  the  table  early  in  May. 
It  is  expected  that  the  exportation  of  dried  fruits  will 
become  a  leading  item  in  the  commerce  of  that  coun- 
try. 

Of  course  where  the  cereals  and  fruits  are  in  such 
quantity  and  quality,  the  vegetables  keep  them  company 


THE  OREGON  OF  TO-DAY.  339 

in  the  homes  of  the  settlers,  as  is  usual  elsewhere.  Po- 
tato, cabbage,  turnip,  squash,  onion,  beet,  carrot,  pars- 
nip, celery,  tomato,  aud  the  varieties  of  melon  are 
quite  prolific.  The  last  two  do  best  in  the  drier  and 
warmer  soils  east  of  the  mountains. 

As  a  timber  and  lumber  country,  with  facilities  for 
transportation,  probably  the  region  is  not  surpassed 
The  merchant  marine  of  the  world  could  be  built  and 
annually  renewed  there,  without  heavy  drafts  on  the 
natural  supplies.  The  timber  distant  from  water  trans- 
portation will  wait  as  a  proper  reserve  for  the  branch 
railroads.  The  majesty  and  beauty  of  these  primitive 
forests  can  hardly  be  exaggerated,  where  the  yellow  fir 
stands  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  the  pine,  silver  fir,  and 
black  spruce  one  hundred  and  fifty,  and  the  white  oak 
seventy.  Cedars  have  been  found  there  twenty  feet  in 
diameter.  Nor  does  the  demand  allow  these  grand  for- 
ests to  stand  uninvaded.  A  single  mill  has  the  capacity 
to  cut  out  200,000  feet  of  lumber  a  day,  and  in  1882 
the  aggregate  cutting  capacity  of  all  the  mills  was 
1,000,000  a  day. 

In  this  connection  the  extent  of  navigable  waters  is  a 
first  consideration.  The  Columbia  drains  a  basin  of 
395,000  square  miles,  iucluding  its  tributaries,  which  em- 
brace twelve  degrees  of  latitude  and  thirteen  of  longi- 
tude. The  main  stream  is  navigable  for  725  miles  from 
its  mouth,  with  interruptions.  This  carries  its  naviga- 
tion within  450  miles  of  the  navigable  Missouri,  and 
within  350  of  the  navigable  Yellowstone,  at  Huntley. 
Nothing  nearer  and  better  than  this  will  ever  answer  to 
the  "  Straits  of  Anian,"  that  chimerical  passage  for  ships 
through  America  to  Asia,  in  the  vain  search  for  which 
so  much  of  the  scholarly  navigation  of  the  world  was 


840     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

wasted  for  two  centuries  and  a  half,  with  thousands  of 
human  lives  and  untold  treasure. 

Good  steam  vessels  can  go  up  the  Columbia  300 
miles,  and  light  draught  boats  725  miles.  The  Willa- 
mette is  navigable  for  138  miles,  and  the  Snake  for  150. 
Several  navigable  rivers  empty  into  the  Pacific  on  the 
Oregon  coast,  which  allow  much  commerce  for  vessels 
of  light  draught.  Tide  water  in  Puget  Sound  and 
vicinity  has  a  shore  line  of  1,800  miles  in  Washington, 
and  such  is  its  depth  up  to  natural  rock  wharves,  in 
sections,  that  the  largest  vessels  can  load  and  unload  at 
them.  For  light  draught  steamers  and  for  logging  pur- 
poses the  inland  waters  of  Oregon  and  Washington  fur- 
nish almost  unlimited  facilities. 

The  run  by  steamer  from  Portland  to  Sitka,  1,000 
miles,  is  mostly  in  sight  of  the  mainland,  and  through 
a  perpetual  archipelago.  It  would  seem  as  if,  on  that 
far-away  coast,  the  ocean  and  the  continent  once  struggled 
for  monopoly,  and  finally  made  a  compromise.  Hence 
the  ocean  runs  up  into  the  continent  in  an  indefinite 
number  of  bays,  inlets,  creeks,  and  estuaries,  while  in 
and  around  these,  as  if  to  hold  a  full  share,  the  continent 
has  anchored  her  islands  and  peninsulas  and  bold  head- 
lands. Like  spirited  parties  closing  a  controversy,  the 
divide  is  quite  on  the  perpendicular,  with  threatening 
depth  of  water  and  equal  boldness  and  uprightness  of 
shore  land.  In  the  interior  are  the  sentinel  mountains 
on  picket,  watching  the  invading  ocean,  while  it  makes 
constant  and  vain  assaults  on  the  boundary  line.  The 
wooded  islands  and  main  shores,  with  the  heaviest  of  for* 
est,  add  a  beauty  and  a  charm,  which  crown  the  scenery 
as  picturesque  and  grand,  perhaps  beyond  parallel ;  the 
sky  and  the  water,  meanwhile,  rivaling  each  other  in 


THE  OREGON  OF  TO-DAT.  341 

the  deepest  blue.  The  plain  prose  of  all  which  is  that 
that  coast,  inland  and  seaward,  is  unusually  favorable  to 
light  and  heavy  commerce. 

From  what  has  been  said  of  inland  navigation  it  may 
be  inferred  that  water  power  for  mechanical  purposes  is 
abundant.  It  might  be  added  that  it  is  proximately  un- 
limited, while  there  are  vast  natural  stores  for  agricul- 
tural irrigation  on  the  east  of  the  mountain  ranges. 
The  water  power  of  Oregon  and  Washington  can  be 
stated  only  briefly  and  in  a  general  way. 

The  Cascades,  on  the  Columbia,  about  150  miles  from 
its  mouth,  constitute  a  remarkable  waterfall  in  this  great 
river,  where  in  the  course  of  four  miles  its  descent  is 
300  feet.  The  banks  on  both  sides,  to  the  extent  of 
six  miles,  are  susceptible  of  a  double  series  of  Lowells. 
Fifty  miles  above  the  Cascades  are  the  Dalles,  where 
the  river  is  forced  into  a  channel  175  feet  wide,  offer- 
ing its  full  volume  of  water  to  canals  and  machinery. 
A  hundred  miles  or  so  above  the  Dalles,  Lewis'  branch 
and  Clark's  branch  unite,  forming  the  Columbia,  and 
the  volume  of  water  for  these  falls  below  may  be  judged 
from  the  fact  that  at  the  juncture,  Lewis'  River  is  2,880 
feet  wide  and  Clark's  is  1,725  feet. 

Going  up  the  Willamette  to  Oregon  City  we  meet  a 
water  power  estimated  at  1,000,000  horse  power,  where 
the  river  makes  a  plunge  of  forty  feet.  Fifty  miles 
above  Oregon  City  is  Salem,  through  which  the  waters 
of  the  Santiam,  the  main  feeder  of  the  Willamette,  are 
emptied  into  that  river  by  six  falls,  which  aggregate  102 
feet.  Link  River,  that  empties  Upper  Klamath  Lake, 
offers  manufacturing  power  equal  to  that  of  Oregon 
City.  The  Tualatin  River,  a  west  branch  of  the  Wil- 
lamette, furnishes  rare  opportunities.  By  falls  of 


342    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

twenty-two  feet  it  enters  Sucker  Lake,  and  by  ninety 
more  of  fall  it  empties  into  the  Willamette  at  Oswego. 
By  an  aqueduct  eight  miles,  and  with  a  descent  of  136 
feet,  its  waters  could  be  brought  into  Portland. 

All  these  falls  are  of  course  suggestive  of  manufac- 
turing villages,  and  only  a  few  of  the  whole  are  here 
mentioned.  But  a  glance  at  the  Government  Map  of 
the  United  States,  compiled  from  the  official  surveys  of 
the  General  Land  Office,  and  issued  late  in  1882,  will 
show  one  what  abundant  water  facilities  our  Northwest 
possesses.  The  rivers  are  thickly  laid,  and  the  moun- 
tains among  which  they  flow  must  give  them  a  head 
and  fall  for  an  indefinite  amount  of  power  for  human 
use. 

The  manufactures  of  Oregon  can  be  compactly  stated 
from  the  census  returns  for  1880,  according  to  which  it 
appears  that  at  that  date  the  state  had  1,744  establish- 
ments, employing  6,056  hands  on  $12,474,019  of  capi- 
tal, with  $6,155,560  of  material  and  $2,016,311  in 
wages,  and  putting  products  on  the  market  to  the  value 
of  $13,342,130.  Among  the  articles  produced  are  agri- 
cultural implements,  furniture,  leather,  and  the  various 
proceeds  of  it,  the  handiwork  of  wheelwrights,  carpen- 
ters and  blacksmiths,  and  of  the  most  of  the  other  trades 
that  usually  go  with  the  above-mentioned. 

The  salmon  fisheries  constitute  a  leading  commercial 
interest  in  Oregon.  Professor  Goode,  Special  Agent 
for  Fisheries  for  the  census  of  1880,  gives  the  number 
of  cases  of  packed  salmon  from  Oregon  for  that  year  as 
538,587.  As  each  case  contains  forty-eight  one  pound 
cans,  here  are  nearly  thirteen  thousand  tons  of  salmon 
for  the  trade  of  the  world,  at  an  estimated  export  value 
of  $2,650,000.  In  1866  this  interest  began  with  a 


THE  OREGON  OF  TO-DAY.  343 

product  of  $G4,000,  and  has  made  this  growth.  The 
average  salmon  weighs  twenty-two  pounds,  and  three  of 
them  generally  to  a  case,  so  that  the  catch  for  Oregon 
in  1880  was  about  sixteen  hundred  thousand  of  that 
prince  of  fishes. 

Between  Astoria  and  the  Cascades  are  thirty-five  can- 
neries. The  fish  are  taken  with  gill-nets,  seines,  and 
traps,  and  the  fisherman  receives  about  sixty-five  cents 
per  fish.  In  1881  about  1,600  boats  were  engaged, 
each  costing,  with  outfit,  about  $600.  The  seines  are 
from  300  to  600  feet  long,  and  the  nets  from  1,500  to 
1,800,  with  depth  of  twelve  feet.  The  head  fishermen 
are  generally  Scandinavian  and  Italian. 

There  seems  to  be  no  decrease  in  the  supply  since 
this  business  opened  seventeen  years  ago,  and  while  the 
figures  now  given  pertain  mainly  to  the  Columbia,  it 
must  be  considered  that  the  minor  rivers,  all  the  way 
from  the  California  line  to  Frazer's  River  over  the 
British  border,  are  fairly  stocked  for  local  use,  as  well 
as  for  some  foreign  trade.  Eminently  this  is  true  of 
the  Puget  Sound  region,  where  the  inland  seas,  estu- 
aries, and  small  rivers  are  literally  crowded  with  them. 

Other  varieties  of  fish  on  those  coasts  should  not  go 
unmeutioned,  as  the  several  species  of  the  salmo  family, 
sturgeon,  halibut,  cod,  herring,  and  smelt.  The  cod- 
fishing  of  the  Northwest  is  said  to  rival  that  of  the 
Banks,  and  especially  in  the  quality  of  cod.  Some 
English  authors  complain  that  Great  Britain  gave  away 
Oregon,  and  the  "  London  Times "  explains,  when  it 
speaks  of  the  Columbia  salmon  catch  of  1875  as  four 
times  that  of  the  whole  United  Kingdom. 

Stock-raising  was  early  tried  in  Oregon  and  Washing- 
ton, and  the  success  of  the  experiments  has  made  that 


344    OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

country  a  rival  of  even  Texas,  in  the  judgment  of  prac- 
tical men.  In  1880  it  had  13,808,392  head  of  cattle  in 
its  16,217  farms.  Two  or  three  things  have  favored 
this  result.  The  native  grasses  are  nutritious  and  abun- 
dant, and  having  been  cured  by  the  sun  without  cutting, 
they  are  constant  and  ample  feed  through  the  year. 
A  tract  east  of  the  Cascade  Mountains,  220  by  240 
miles,  embracing  the  entire  eastern  section  of  the  state, 
abounds  in  these  grasses,  and  while  the  rain-fall  may 
be  only  from  nine  to  twelve  inches,  the  most  of  its 
lakes,  rivers,  creeks,  and  springs  allow  abundance  of 
water  for  stock  purposes.  But  for  agriculture,  irriga- 
tion must  be  adopted,  and  this  necessity  will  keep  back 
the  region  from  farming,  and  leave  the  border  unmo- 
lested for  the  present.  Still  the  bunch-grass  land  is 
tempting  as  wheat  land. 

The  mildness  of  the  climate  and  the  fair  warmth  of 
the  winters,  already  mentioned,  have  made  this  an  easy 
pursuit  of  wealth,  since  shelter  and  feeding  in  the  cold 
season  could  be  dispensed  with.  However,  though 
milder  there  than  in  Illinois  and  New  York,  some  dis- 
astrous storms,  or  unusually  severe  winters,  have  intro- 
duced changes  in  this  regard ;  and  cover  of  some  kind, 
and  feed  for  emergencies,  are  now  regarded  as  the  best 
financial  policy,  especially  for  horned  cattle.  Horses 
and  sheep  endure  this  neglect  better. 

The  remarks  of  Mr.  Hugh  Small,  made  ten  years 
ago,  need  qualifying  under  the  experience  of  a  decade  : 
"  The  climate  is  fine :  nine  months  of  the  year  the 
climate  is  delightful.  Snow  falls  in  December,  Janu- 
ary, and  February,  but  it  is  a  dry  snow :  it  never  pene- 
trates to  the  skin  of  the  animals :  they  shake  it  off  like 
dust.  It  seldom  freezes,  and  all  kinds  of  stock  remain 


THE  OREGON  OF  TO-DAY.  345 

out  all  the  year,  and  fatten  as  well  in  winter  as  in  sum- 
mer." 

The  intelligent  and  successful  stock-raisers  have  de- 
voted much  interest  and  capital  to  the  introduction  of 
selected  and  approved  bloods,  even  as  in  the  East,  and 
great  changes  have  been  wrought  in  that  regard.  The 
California  steer,  Mexican  scrub  sheep,  and  Indian  pony 
have  gone  by  with  the  early  days  and  rough  times  of 
Oregon.  Of  cattle,  about  150,000  head  are  annually 
driven  to  the  Eastern  markets. 

In  1881,  the  clip  of  wool  in  Oregon  was  above 
8,000,000  of  pounds,  and  it  is  said  to  be  ranking  with 
the  best  fleeces  that  reach  the  Eastern  factories. 

It  is  too  early  to  speak  with  much  intelligence  and 
authority  on  the  minerals  of  Oregon.  A  thorough  and 
unspeculative  survey  is  yet  waited  for.  Gold  has  been 
found  in  Jackson,  Josephine,  Grant,  and  Baker  coun- 
ties, and  gold  and  silver  have  been  mined  to  a  million 
or  so  annually.  What  concerns  more  the  interest  and 
future  history  of  Oregon  is  the  fact  that  iron  is  abun- 
dant through  the  state,  and  that  rich  coal  veins  have 
been  opened  in  several  localities,  as  at  Coos  Bay,  on 
the  Umpqua  and  Yaquima  rivers,  at  St.  Helen  and  other 
places. 

From  what  has  been  stated  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
inland  navigation  of  Oregon  is  ».n  important  item  in  its 
commerce  and  growth.  An  efficient  line  of  steamers 
is  established  on  the  Columbia  for  300  miles  from  its 
mouth,  while  lighter  crafts  are  used  425  miles  farther 
up.  First-class  steamers  run  up  to  Portland  on  the 
Willamette  twelve  miles  from  its  mouth  on  the  Colum- 
bia. This  river  allows  for  the  trade  of  small  vessels 


346     OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

for  138  miles,  and  the  Snake  for  a  greater  distance. 
The  navigable  waters  of  the  Columbia  and  Mississippi 
valleys  approach  within  350  miles  of  each  other. 

A  system  of  packet  steamers  for  travel  and  trade  is 
quite  inviting  in  this  new  state.  Starting  from  Port- 
land one  has  a  charming  run,  past  the  Cascades,  65 
miles,  up  to  the  Dalles,  110  miles  ;  or  the  same  distance 
down  to  old  Astoria  of  earliest  enterprise,  and  commer- 
cial romance  and  diplomatic  history.  Or  one  would 
vary  with  boat  and  rail  as  he  runs  up  to  Olyrnpia.  120 
miles,  or  yet  farther  into  Washington  to  Seattle,  167 
miles.  If  inland  and  Sound  running  be  preferred  the 
seaworthy  and  well  equipped  steamers  will  run  down 
and  over  to  Victoria  on  Vancouver,  260  miles. 

Of  course  there  are  many  small  vessels,  steam  and 
sail,  plying  between  the  numerous  ports,  large  and 
small,  that  give  life  and  beauty  to  those  inland  waters, 
showing  the  energy,  and  thrift,  and  growth  of  that  Pa- 
cific State.  And  what  facilities  for  business  and  pleas- 
ure the  navigable  rivers  of  Oregon  and  Washington  do 
not  now  furnish,  the  railroads  are  rapidly  providing. 

As  these  sheets  are  going  through  the  press,  the  North- 
ern Pacific  Railroad,  that  herculean  work,  is  laying  its 
last  connecting  rails,  and  the  grand  ideal  of  its  projec- 
tors is  completed.  Only  by  sections  can  its  magnitude 
be  realized.  From  Lake  Superior  into  the  Dakota 
Valley,  300  miles,  to  the  Yellowstone,  300  more,  and 
up  and  along  that  river,  400  ;  then  300  through  the 
Flathead  Valley  and  a  final  500  to  Puget  Sound.  It  is 
well  that  the  ancients  limited  the  wonders  of  the  world 
to  seven,  else  there  would  be  a  long  catalogue.  The 
scheme  fills  out  the  project  and  crowns  the  wonderful 
ride  of  the  grand  pioneer  of  it  all.  If  the  tomahawk 


THE  OREGON  OF  TO-DAY.  347 

could  have  spared  him  from  the  saddle  of  1843  for  the 
palace  car  and  golden  spike  of  1883  ! 

This  may  be  considered  as  a  trunk  road,  to  open  by 
branches,  two  hundred  miles  of  breadth  on  each  side  of 
it.  The  compass  of  such  a  belt,  between  Lake  Supe- 
rior and  the  Pacific,  seems  incredible.  It  would  take 
in  England  and  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  France,  Spain, 
and  the  thirty-five  states  of  the  old  German  Confedera- 
tion. 

And  it  is  receiving,  heavily,  of  these  nations.  A  few 
hours  of  study  at  Castle  Garden,  watching  the  polyglot 
procession  as  it  debarks,  three  thousand  a  day  at  one 
port  only,  and  moves  on,  largely  to  the  Northwest,  will 
soon  show  how  those  magnificent  areas  are  opening  to 
overcrowded  Europe.  Since  those  prehistoric  days, 
when  Asia  tilted  toward  Europe  and  spilled  into  it  its 
Aryan  hordes,  there  has  not  been  such  a  column  of  the 
human  race  moving  in  one  direction,  as  is  now  going 
out  into  our  West  and  up  into  our  Northwest.  Hereto- 
fore such  emigrations  of  mankind  have  served  to  divide 
up  universal  history  into  eras,  and  we  are  now  opening 
for  a  new  alcove  in  the  historic  library  of  the  world. 

We  are  better  prepared  now,  in  the  completion  of  the 
Northern  Pacific,  to  fill  the  words  of  Henry  Wilson 
with  their  proper  meaning.  When  this  noble  inter- 
oceanic  enterprise  was  before  Congress,  he  said,  and 
with  much  of  boldness  for  that  day,  "  I  give  no  grudg- 
ing vote  in  giving  away  either  money  or  land.  I  would 
sink  $100,000,000  to  build  the  road,  and  do  it  most 
cheerfully,  and  think  I  had  done  a  great  thing  for  my 
country." 

In  Oregon  and  Washington  the  branches  of  this  trunk 
road  are  running  out  quite  freely,  in  a  new  country,  for 


348  OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

its  development.  Not  only  do  the  connecting  links  go 
into  the  main  line,  but  branches  also  are  to  be  com- 
pleted by  midsummer  of  this  year  from  Portland  to 
Kalama ;  from  Palouse  Junction  to  Farmington  and 
Moscow ;  from  Riparia  to  Lewiston  ;  and  from  Union 
to  Baker  City.  The  Oregon  and  California  road  is 
completed  much  south  of  Roseburg,  and  is  progressing 
rapidly  to  a  connection  at  the  state  line  with  the  Cali- 
fornia and  Oregon  road. 

That  Northwest  therefore,  so  far  off  till  now,  has  be- 
come our  next-door  neighbor,  and  as  near  to  New  York 
as  Monday  is  to  Friday.  Where  were  heard,  mainly, 
only  the  dashings  of  her  rivers  in  the  primeval  stillness 
of  her  wilderness,  are  now  the.  puffing  of  steamers  and 
whistle  of  locomotives,  and  clatter  of  mills  and  bustle 
of  trade,  and  the  glad  sounds  of  farm  life,  and  the  win- 
some music  of  children.  The  Oregon  question  and  the 
era  of  the  beaver,  one  and  the  same  thing,  are  ended. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

IT  is  with  regrets  that  this  monograph  or  study  of  a 
single  line  of  thought  and  growth  in  American  history 
is  brought  to  a  conclusion.  In  writing  it  not  only  a  re- 
creation and  pleasure  have  been  indulged,  but  a  theory 
has  been  gratified  that  sometimes  history  is  best  studied 
and  taught  and  mastered  topically.  In  this  instance  a 
line  of  territorial  growth  to  one  termination  has  been 
carefully  followed.  It  has  proved  a  thread  from  which 
many  lateral  or  side  threads  have  sprung  as  we  passed 
along.  These  have  been  allowed  to  extend,  if  we  may 
illustrate  by  grape  culture,  till  they  have  been  pruned 
away,  or  set  fruit  in  one  or  more  historic  clusters  and 
then  been  headed  off. 

Wilderness  traffic,  nursed  to  the  hinderance  of  civili- 
zation, has  been  traced,  and  the  emigrant  wagon  fol- 
lowed from  clearing  to  prairie,  and  on  up  the  valleys 
and  into  the  mountains.  We  have  counted  the  cabins 
where  government  has  since  taken  the  city  census.  We 
have  watched  the  scramble  of  nations  for  land  with 
dubious  titles  or  none  at  all,  till  hot  blood  and  running 
blood  prepared  the  way  for  diplomatists  and  civil  en- 
gineers. Here  we  have  seen  that  governments  seem  to 
be  but  immense  business  firms,  ruinous  to  the  smaller 
ones,  by  the  laws  of  trade  that  the  stronger  enact  and 
the  weaker  endure,  lu  these  struggles  to  possess  a 


350     OREGON:   THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

new  country,  or  repossess  a  lost  one,  we  look  long  for 
any  national  ethics  or  law  of  right  except  what  is  avoir- 
dupois. 

The  inside  view  of  high  contracting  parties  shows  us 
finesse,  ambiguities,  sinuosities,  and  misleading  eddies 
in  the  grave  current  of  the  business  in  hand.  Tricks 
that  would  shame  a  huckster  have  much  lessened  our 
childhood  reverence  for  great  names  and  nations,  as  we 
have  followed  these  threads  of  history  and  lines  of 
growth  from  York  Factory  and  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
from  the  Potomac  to  the  Columbia. 

While  presenting  the  one  topic,  the  concession  of 
Oregon  to  the  United  States,  it  has  been  incidental  and 
inevitable,  and  vastly  instructive  to  see  how  wanting  in 
honor  and  philanthropy  and  patriotism  a  huge  chartered 
monopoly  can  sometimes  become.  It  would  require 
statesmen  of  the  Bismarck  and  Webster  and  Gladstone 
type  to  show  how  much  the  British  Empire  was  dam- 
aged when  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  voted  the  north- 
ern half  of  our  continent  to  be  wilderness  in  perpetuity. 
What  are  the  civilization  of  savages  and  fair  fields  and 
winsome  homes  to  them  in  comparison  with  good  divi- 
dends at  the  home  office  in  Fenchurch  Street,  London  ? 

By  this  detail  of  consecutive  and  fruitful  incidents, 
all  converging  toward  the  Canal  de  Haro,  policies  of 
peace  and  war  pass  in  review,  and  we  note  how  difficult 
and  how  blessed  it  is  for  leading  statesmen  to  be  peace- 
makers. One  secures  popularity  for  to-day  on  a  war-cry, 
while  the  broader  patriot  pacifies  the  excited  populace, 
and  cools  popular  ardor  toward  himself,  and  at  Marsh- 
field  awaits  honor  from  the  ages. 

While  studying  our  national  growth  in  one  line  we 
have  incidentally  and  inevitably  seen  it  on  many  lines. 


CONCLUSION.  351 

To  produce  this  result  has  been  a  leading  aim  in  these 
historical  tracings,  that  the  reader  might  come  to  see 
the  magnitude  and  magnificence  of  our  country  —  what 
Gladstone  has  called  "  a  natural  base  for  the  greatest 
continuous  empire  ever  established  by  man." 

In  colonial  and  revolutionary  days  one  of  the  best 
friends  of  the  coming  Republic  was  Thomas  Pownall. 
He  was  early  the  Secretary  of  the  Commission  for 
Trade  and  Plantations.  He  negotiated  for  Massachu- 
setts the  expedition  against  Crown  Point,  aiid  was 
afterward  royal  governor  for  Massachusetts,  New  Jer- 
sey, and  South  Carolina.  Few  men  comprehended  bet- 
ter the  geographical  character  and  natural  worth  of  our 
country,  and  he  studied  the  growth  of  our  institutions 
both  as  a  statesman  and  a  traveler.  He  early  saw  and 
said,  1780,  that  such  a  people  as  the  United  States 
would  become,  would  not  "  suffer  in  their  borders  such 
a  monopoly  as  the  European  Hudson  Bay  Company." 

In  his  letter  of  adieu  to  Franklin,  who  was  about 
leaving  Europe  for  home,  he  says :  "  You  are  going  to 
a  New  World,  formed  to  exhibit  a  scene  which  the  Old 
World  never  yet  saw."  In  an  earlier  letter  to  Franklin, 
and  when  referring  to  the  planting  and  growth  of  the 
great  nation  he  foresaw  us  to  be,  he  expressed  a  wish 
to  revisit  America,  saying :  "  If  thefe  was  ever  an  ob- 
ject worth  traveling  to  see,  and  worthy  of  the  contem- 
plation of  a  philosopher,  it  is  that  in  which  he  may  see 
the  beginning  of  a  great  empire  at  its  foundation." 

Along  our  Oregon  trail  we  have  had  one  line  of  vision 
among  these  foundations.  They  have  run  off,  right  and 
left,  from  our  path  into  magnificent  distances,  covering 
what  we  almost  without  meaning  call  "  the  West."  To 
see  and  study  the  beginnings  of  these  foundations  of  a 


352      OREGON:  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  POSSESSION. 

great  empire,  as  Governor  Pownall  wished  to  do,  would 
turn  provincial  into  continental  men. 

Our  line  of  study  and  thought  and  feeling  in  this 
theme  have,  from  the  first,  had  a  westward  trend.  Per- 
haps the  readers  will  feel  as  Washington  did,  after  re- 
turning from  a  "  Western  tour."  While  the  army  was 
lying  in  winter  quarters  at  Newburg,  under  truce,  and 
awaiting  the  treaty  of  peace,  he  made  a  journey  with 
Governor  Clinton,  into  the  interior  and  as  far  west  as  the 
heads  of  the  Susquehauna.  Of  this  trip  he  writes  :  — 

"  Prompted  by  these  actual  observations,  I  could  not 
help  taking  a  more  extensive  view  of  the  vast  inland 
navigation  of  the  United  States,  from  maps,  and  the  in- 
formation of  others,  and  could  not  but  be  struck  with  the 
immense  extent  and  importance  of  it,  and  with  the 
goodness  of  that  Providence  which  has  dealt  its  favors 
to  us  with  so  profuse  a  hand.  Would  to  God  we  may 
have  wisdom  enough  to  improve  them." 

The  treaty  then  pending  was  to  concede  to  the  United 
States  about  one  fifth  only  of  the  territory  she  owns  to- 
day. Yet  Washington  was  "  struck  with  the  immense 
extent  and  importance"  of  that  one  fifth,  and  he  con- 
tinues his  letter  by  saying,  so  like  the  statesman  and 
American  that  he  was :  "  I  shall  not  be  contented  till  I 
have  explored  the  Western  Country,"  —  a  noble  and 
necessary  sentiment  for  all  who  would  be  national 
Americans. 


li 


ir^JaiL.Xli 


n 


W: 


Map  showing  the  last  boundary  in  dispute  between  England  and  tho 
United  States. 


IlsTDEX. 


ABERDEEN,  Earl,  regrets  the  haste  of 
Pakeuham,  '290. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  and  the  Russian 
claims  on  the  Pacific,  23,  24 ;  on 
and  for  Oregon,  275. 

Agriculture  discouraged  by  Hudson 
Bay  Company,  88-90, 321-324. 

Alaska,  lower  part,  leased  by  Russia 
to  Hudson  Bay  Company,  25. 

Alexander  VI.,  Pope,  Bull  of,  1,  5, 
13. 

American  Board  and  "  Whitman's 
Ride,"  241-243. 

American  Desert,  a  popular  and  de- 
ceptive term,  192-197,  337,  338. 

American  domain,  increase  of,  from 
Spain  and  France,  1 15. 

American  Fur  Company,  organized  St. 
Louis,  1808,  58  ;  rooms,  St.  Louis, 
remarkable  scene  in,  110. 

Arbitration,  proposed  and  declined, 
315. 

Ashburton  Treaty,  defended  by  Web- 
ster, 278 ;  fixed  boundary  to  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  297. 

Ashley  opens  trade  on  the  heads  of 
the  Platte  and  Colorado,  79. 

Astor,  of  Astoria,  John  Jacob,  58, 59 ; 
plans  for  fur  trade  on  the  Pacific,  59 : 
founds  Astoria  by  an  overland  ex- 
pedition, and  one  by  Cape  Horn,  GO, 
Cl ;  sad  fate  of  the  Tonquin,  Gl ;  the 
war  and  other  misliaps,  61 ;  is 
treacherously  sold  out,  Gl,  62 ;  the 
English  take  Astoria,  G3 ;  and  de- 
cline to  restore  it  according  to  the 
treaty  of  peace,  G4,  65,  285 ;  held 
by  Northwest  Fur  Company  till  1845, 
CC ;  what  kind  of  a  post,  <XJ,  283 ;  a 
settlement  that  constituted  a  claim, 
219, 220. 

"  Atlantic  Monthly  "  on  the  Whitman 
and  Webster  interview,  231. 

Authorities  used  in  compiling  this  vol- 
ume, 353-35C. 

BAGOT,    English  plenipotentiary,  op- 


poses the  reoccupation  of  Astoria, 
64. 

Balboa,  claims  of,  to  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
2,206. 

Bancroft,  George,  manages  the  arbi- 
tration for  the  United  States  before 
the  Emperor  William,  317,  318. 

Barrow,  Sir  John,  and  northwest  pas- 
sage, 45. 

Beaver,  abundance  of,  34. 

Bent,  Charles,  Governor,  the  hospital- 
ity of  his  fort,  and  hi.-,  service  to  the 
Republic,  172,  173. 

Bent's  Fort,  where  and  what,  172, 173. 

Bent  and  St.  Vraiu  lead  the  Santa  F6 
trade,  7!),  173. 

Benton,  Hon.  T.  H.,  proposal  to  set 
the  god  Terminus  on  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  19 ;  to  take  Oregon  with 
rifles,  259,  270 ;  states  a  plan  for  di- 
viding Pacific  coast,  284. 

Bering,  his  discoveries  and  death,  22. 

Bible,  sought  by  Indians  in  St.  Louis, 
103-113. 

Black  Hills,  forbidden  by  Indians  to 
white  men,  28. 

Black  Hills,  Carver's  prophecy  con- 
cerning, 28. 

Bodega,  Cal.,  Russian  stockade  post, 
25. 

Bonneville,  and  his  romantic  trade  on 
the  Colorado  and  Columbia,  81. 

Boundary  question  between  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain,  difficulties 
of,  53-5G ;  finally  settled  by  the  Em- 
peror William,  r>r>,  :;i.v:;i;i'. 

Bounty  on  marriage,  124. 

Bridal  tour  of  3,500  miles,  129-139. 

"  British  and  Foreign  Review,"  opin- 
ions of,  87,  192. 

Brouillet,  on  the  Whitman  massacre, 
326-328. 

Buffalo,  slaughter  of,  99-101. 

CALHOUX,  JOHN  C.,  on  omission  of  Or- 
egon from  the  Ashburton  Treat/, 
227  ;  on  war  for  Oregon,  278-280. 


356 


INDEX, 


California,  English  scheme  to  seize, 
273. 

Campbell,  Archibald,  U.  S.  Commis- 
sioner, to  run  the  Oregon  Treaty 
line,  '297. 

Canada,  a  part  of  Florida  under  Spain, 

Canal  de  Haro,  SCO. 

Cannon  first  taken  into  the  mountains, 
79. 

Carver,  Jonathan,  explores  the  West, 
1766-1768,  27-29,  31. 

Cass,  on  war  for  Oregon,  280. 

Catlin  and  the  four  Flat-Head  Indians, 
112, 113. 

Cattle  introduced  from  California,  39. 

Chesapeake,  frigate,  attack  on,  de- 
stroys treaty  of  1807,  07. 

Chevalier  de  Poletica's  bold  claim  for 
Russia  on  the  northwest  coast,  24. 

Chief  trader  in  the  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany, his  domain  of  solitude,  95, 
96. 

Choate,  Hon.  Rufus,  for  watch  and 
guard  on  Oregon,  Go  ;  for  delay  and 
peace,  259,  260  ;  for  occupation  by 
immigration,  270. 

Christian  Missions  on  the  northwest 
coast,  their  origin,  116,  117. 

Christian  work  among  the  Indians, 
88-91. 

Clark,  General  George  Rogers,  saves 
St.  Louis,  49. 

Clark,  General  William,  public  life  in 
upper  Louisiana,  etc.,  106-113. 

Clayton,  on  war  for  Oregon,  276. 

Colonial  [English]  Magazine  and  mis- 
sionaries, 91. 

Colonists,  criminal  and  immoral, 
shipped  to  the  new  world,  123-125. 

Colonial  [English]  Magazine,  91. 

Columbia  River,  all  claimed  by  Rush, 
73. 

Columbia,  such  a  river  suspected  by 
Meares,  Vancouver,  and  others,  213 ; 
progressive  discovery  of.  claimed 
by  English,  215. 

Conclusion,  349-352  ;  American  growth 
traced  on  one  line,  349 :  national 
ethics,  349, 350 ;  a  monopoly  studied 
and  its  lesson,  350 :  two  kinds  of 
popularity,  350 ;  national  growth, 
as  a  whole,  350,  351. 

Cook,  James,  discoveries  of,  on  north- 
west coast,  29,  30. 

Council  Bluffs,  singular  error  as  to 
location  of,  73. 

Crittenden,  on  war  for  Oregon,  274, 
27G. 

Crozat  and  his  Charter,  88,  289. 

Gushing,  Caleb,  on  the  northern  limits 
of  Louisiana,  209,  210. 


DAVIS,  JEFFERSON,  on  war  for  Oregon, 
275. 

Dayton,  on  war  for  Oregon,  279. 

De  Tocqueville  laments  for  France  the 
loss  of  Louisiana,  21. 

D'Iberville,  energy  and  ambition  of, 
10. 

Dinner  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  136. 

Discovery  of  the  mouth  of  a  river, 
gave  its  valley  to  the  discoverer, 
213,  216. 

Distances  in  the  "  Lone  Land,"  39, 96. 

Dobbs,  opposed  by  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany, in  seeking  the  northwest  pas- 
sage, 45. 

Dog-trains,  95-97. 

Douglas,  of  Illinois,  on  war  for  Oregon, 
275. 

Drake,  Sir  Francis,  ridiculous  corona- 
tion of,  206. 

Duflot  de  Mofras,  map  of,  301. 

Duncan  thwarted  by  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  in  searching  for  the  north- 
west passage,  46. 

Dunn,  John,  on  the  monopoly  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company,  209. 

EAST  or  West,  for  investment  of  be- 
nevolent donations  ?  77, 78,  197, 198. 

"Edinburgh  Review,"  opinions  of, 
150,  192,  194,  253,  264. 

Elizabeth,  of  Russia,  gains  possession 
in  North  America,  3. 

Ely  Volume  on  the  interview  between 
Whitman  and  Webster,  231,  232.  242. 

Emigration,  examples  of,  265,  to  Ore- 
gon, stimulated,  263,  264 ;  early,  on 
the  Ohio,  240  :  early  practice  of,  at 
St.  Louis,  243-245 ;  increased  by 
Whitman,  251.  252. 

England  in  the  New  World  in  1697, 
4 ;  begins  to  explore  her  acquisitions 
from  the  French  in  17C3 ;  struggles 
to  retain  the  northwest  territory  af- 
ter the  revolution,  31 ;  retains  seven 
military  posts  against  the  treaty 
of  1783,  31,  32,  48  ;  fustigates  the 
Indians  to  war  en  the  frontier,  32  ; 
struggles  to  expel  the  .French  from 
the  Ohio,  48;  refuses  to  surrender 
Fort  Albany  to  the  French,  accord- 
ing to  the  Treaty  of  Ryswick,  49 ; 
singular  pretence  to  retain  Oregon, 
65 ;  violates  treaty  of  "  joint  occu- 
pation "  of  Oregon,  G6,  67,  310 ; 
struggles  to  regain  the  West,  68; 
how  England  lost  Oregon,  69  ;  kept 
out  of  a  mapniScent  country  by  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company,  99,  151,  152, 
267,  295,  296 ;  England's  great  mis- 
take on  Oregon,  87-102 ;  her  mo- 
nopoly of  Oregon  strongly  resented, 


INDEX. 


357 


257-200;  did  not  claim  exclusive 
sovereignty,  223,  2G2;  wished  the 
Columbia  for  boundary  in  1818, 283, 
284  ;  embarrassed  by  the  haste  of 
Pakenham,  290 ;  damaged  by  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company,  295,  290. 

English  ambition  for  territory,  218. 

English  and  American  policies  on  the 
frontier,  in  two  pictures,  99-101 ;  in 
contrast,  114,  115,  117-119. 

English,  French,  and  Spanisli  mistake 
in  colonizing  America,  122-127. 

European  policy  of  colonization  and 
failure  in  North  America,  114,  115. 

Evans  on  war  for  Oregon,  279 ;  on 
Whitman  massacre,  327. 

FAMILY  life  indispensable  to  civiliza- 
tion, 122,  123,  120. 

"  Fifty-four  forty,  or  Fight,"  272-281 ; 
a  six  months  question  before  the 
country  and  congress,  273  ;  eminent 
debaters  on,  274. 

Florida  Treaty,  1819,  222,  223,  284. 

Floyd,  the  first  of  the  House  to  move 
for  legislation  on  Oregon,  198. 

Fort  Boise,  143. 

Fort  Chartres  founded  1720,  9  ;  be- 
comes French  headquarter,  and  the 
Paris  of  Upper  Louisiana,  9. 

Fort  Chipewayan,  33. 

Fort  Hall,  its  hostility  to  immigration, 
142,  147-149,  152. 

France  in  the  New  World  in  1097,  2, 
10, 17  ;  discoveries  of,  0-12 ;  loss  by 
Treaty  of  Utrecht,  18  ;  by  battle  on 
the  Plains  of  Abraham,  1759,  18 ; 
sells  the  Louisiana  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  19 ;  regrets  for  the 
same,  19-21  ;  re-purchases,  20 ;  de- 
feated in  occupying,  and  sells  to  the 
United  States,  21. 

Fraser  Lake  Settlement,  the  first  be- 
yond the  mountains,  58. 

Fre'mont  and  the  Oregon  trail,  133  ;  as 
an  escort,  249,  250;  in  California, 
273. 

Frobisher's  trading  post  on  Athabasca 

Lake,  33. 

Frontier  men,  noble  and  neglected, 
43 ;  open  the  new  country,  79. 

GALLATIN,    ALBERT,    on    the   Oregon 

claims,  212. 
Genet,  the  French  Minister,  intrigues 

for  secession  of  the  Southwest,  19. 
Ghent,  Treaty  of,  04,  07,  08  ;  does  not 

notice  Lake  of  the  Woods,  283. 
Gladstone  on  America's  growth,  245, 

351. 
Government  of  Oregon,  moral  tone  of, 

265-2C8. 


Gray's   History   of    Oregon   on   the 

Whitman  and   Webster   interview, 

230. 
Gray,   Captain  Robert,  discovers  the 

Columbia,  213-210. 
Greeuhow  on  the  northern  limits  of 

Louisiana,  209. 
Greenland  in  New  Spain,  0. 

HALF-BREEDS,  92,  94,  95,  125,  120, 149. 
llammerfest,  Norway,  and  iu  climate, 

334. 
Harney,  General,  complicates  the  San 

Juan  question,  311-315. 
Harrison,    General,    and  the  Indian 

war  of  1812,  52,  53. 
Hearne.  Samuel,  discoveries  by,  29. 
Hines'   History    of    Oregon,    on  the 
Whitman  and  Webster  interview, 
230. 

Historic  picture,  134,  135. 
Hudson  Bay  Company  explores  the 
Northwest,  29 ;  charter  of,  33  ;  lead- 
ing force  against  the  United  States 
in  possessing,  36;  objects  of  the 
Charter,  30;  scope  of  power  and 
of  territory,  36-39;  monopoly  of 
Indian  trade  in  British  North 
America,  37-39,  85  ;  encroachment 
on  United  States  territory,  37,  53 ; 
united  in  1821  with  Northwest  Fur 
Company,  37  ;  empowered  in  1803 
to  adopt  Canadian  laws,  38,  84  ;  un- 
changing sameness  of  business,  39, 
40 ;  why  peace  always  with  the  In- 
dians, 40,  41, 321 ;  its  trade  six  years 
in  outfit  and  return  to  London, 
41,  95;  stock  and  profits  of  the 
Company,  42;  ability  of,  43-45; 
obstructed  discoveries,  45-47  ;  order 
filled  for  a  wife,  69,  126 ;  hostile  to 
civilization,  69,  70,  88,  321  ;  mo- 
nopoly of,  74, 75,84,  87, 198, 199, 269, 
303 ;  loneliness  of  the  region,  88  ; 
hostile  to  missions,  88,  90 ;  acquisi- 
tion of  property  discouraged,  89  ; 
neat  cattle  kept  out,  89  ;  allows 
broken-down  men  to  become  farm- 
ers, 90  ;  number  of  Europeans 
employed  by,  94  ;  mixed  blood  of 
the  Company's  employes,  94,  95 ; 
interior  workings  of,  95-102  ;  amuse- 
ments of  employes,  97  ;  trapping 
and  hunting,  methods  of,  97,  98 ; 
amount  of  fur  exported,  98  ;  its 
policy  in  contrast  with  the  Amer- 
ican, 117, 119,  122;  123,  321,  322 ;  offi- 
cers and  servants  went  out  as  single 
men,  and  married  the  natives,  125 ; 
opposition  to  wagons,  140-146  ; 
represents  immigration  over  the 
mountains  to  Oregon  impossible; 


358 


INDEX. 


149-159 ;  the  managers  men  of 
great  ability,  150 ;  created  inter- 
national prejudice  in  their  favor, 
150,  151,  153-156;  191,  192;  sup- 
pressed information,  153  ;  power  of 
the  Company  on  the  Pacific,  157, 209, 
274 :  still  turn  back  immigrants  at 
Fort  Hall,  158 ;  plan  to  take  and 
hold  Oregon  by  settlement,  101 ;  the 
plan  revealed,  102 ;  new  policy  of, 
266  ;  plan  to  hold  by  force  and 
Jesuits,  208  ;  grasping  nature  of, 
288-289 ;  damaging  to  Great  Britain, 
295,  296. 

INDEMNITY,  claimed  and  paid  to  Hud- 
son Bay  Company,  294,  295. 

Indian  and  Traders'  Fair,  135-139. 

"Indian  Countries,"  what,  87,  88; 
trading,  98. 

Indian  incident,  thrilling,  107,  108; 
speech,  eloquent,  110,  111 ;  vain 
search  for  Bible,  103-113;  Fair  at 
Mus-ko-gee,  136,  137  ;  Secession  be- 
yond the  Alleghanies,  danger  of  after 
the  Revolution,  51. 

Indian  policy  of  the  United  States 
less  peaceable  than  the  English,  and 
why,  40,  41. 

Indian  slavery  in  English  Northwest, 
91,92. 

Indians,  Flat-Head,  four,  in  St.  Louis, 
103-113 ;  from  Washington  Terri- 
tory, 104  ;  had  heard  of  white  man's 
God  and  Book  and  came  for  the 
Book,  105 ;  perils  of  the  way,  105, 
106 ;  seek  General  Clark,  known  to 
their  fathers,  106,  108 :  received 
kindly,  109,  110;  fail  to  find  the 
Book,  110 ;  final  audience  and  fare- 
well speech,  110,  111 ;  return  to  the 
mountains  with  Catlin,  112  ;  their 
sad  case  reported  by  a  clerk  of  the 
American  Fur  Company,  112 ;  only 
one  lives  to  reach  his  tribe,  113. 

Indians,  government  of  by  imposition, 
97 ;  prejudiced  against  the  Ameri- 
cans, 66,  67. 

Indians,  why  the  Whitman  Massacre 
by,  320-329. 

Irving,  Washington,  description  of  the 
half-breeds,  93,  94. 

JACKSON,  General,  advising  slow 
growth  west,  199. 

Jefferson's  plan  for  northern  bound- 
ary of  Louisiana  Purchase,  282, 283. 

Jesuits,  their  zeal  as  discoverers,  7,  9, 
30  ;  to  be  used  to  exclude  the  Amer- 
icans, 267,  268 ;  no  evident  connec- 
tion with  the  Whitman  Massacre, 
321-329. 


"  Joint  occupation  "  of  Oregon,  terms 
of,  69  ;  adopted  1818,  283 ;  renewed 
1827,  285  ;  continued  till  1843,  286. 

Joliet  explores  the  Mississippi,  1682, 
8. 

Journeying  over  the  Plains  and  Rocky 
Mountains,  130-139. 

KASKASKIA  founded,  1705,  8;    taken 

by  United  States  in  1778,  9. 
Kellett's  surveys  change  an  important 

map,  301. 
Kelley,   Hall  J.,  aids   emigration  to 

Oregon,  81. 
"  Kuro-siwo,"  or  "  Black  Stream  "  of 

the  Pacific,  334. 

LAKE  OF  THE  Woors,  mistake  in  locat- 
ing by  treaty  of  1783,  53,  55,  299. 

L'Annce  du  Coup  of  St.  Louis,  49. 

La  Salle  on  the  Mississippi,  1G70,  7,  8. 

Law,  John,  and  the  "Mississippi  Bub- 
ble," 290. 

Lee,  Revs.  Jason  and  Daniel,  Mission- 
aries to  Oregon,  117,  121. 

Lewis  and  Clark,  Expedition  of,  217, 
218. 

Linn,  Senator  for  Missouri,  fails  to 
close  "joint occupation,"  255;  calls 
for  information,  256. 

"  London  Examiner,"  opinions  of,  192. 

Long,  Lieut,  and  a  "Great  American 
Desert,"  337. 

Louis  XIV.  proclaimed  King  of  the 
Northwest,  7,  8  ;  what  his  signature 
lost  to  France  in  the  Treaty  of 
Utrecht,  18. 

Lovejoy,  Amos  Lawrence,  with  Dr. 
Whitman  in  his  ride,  166 ;  some  ac- 
count of  the  journey  by  him,  168, 
169 ;  left  at  Bent's  Fort,  173. 

Louisiana,  secretly  transferred  to 
Spain,  1762,  12;  exchanged  with 
France  for  Tuscany,  20;  southern 
boundary  of,  as  conveyed  to  the 
United  States,  71 ;  annoying  delays 
in  running  the  southern  boundary, 
71,  72  ;  and  was  never  run,  72 ;  ex- 
tent of  as  affected  by  the  Nootka 
Convention,  203 ;  did  the  Louisiana 
extend  to  the  Pacific,  or  beyond 
Lake  of  the  Woods?  209, 216  ;  trans- 
fer to  the  United  States  delayed, 
and  guaranteed  by  Napoleon,  210 ; 
formal  cession,  210,  211 ;  the  pur- 
chase of,  210 :  terms  of  reconveyance 
from  Spain  to  France,  222 ;  price  of, 
21. 

MACKENZIE,  ALEXANDER,  excursion  to 
the  Arctic,  33;  to  the  Pacific,  33- 
36  ;  power  of,  35. 


INDEX. 


359 


MacNamnra  scheme  to  seize  Califor- 
nia, 27.5. 

Maiii.jon  on  uortheru  limits  of  Louisi- 
ana, '.'IK). 

Maine  Historical  Society,  Collections 
of,  on  Asliburtou  Treaty,  '235. 

Manitoba,  the  home  of  the  forest  aris- 
tocracy, 94. 

Marietta,  founding  of,  11C. 

Marquette  explores  the  Mississippi, 
1682,  8. 

Marriage,  how  promoted  in  French, 
Spanish  and  English  Colonies,  122- 
12,5  ;  of  Hudson  Bay  Company  men, 
92-94. 

McDuffie,  on  war  for  Oregon,  274. 

Meares  fails  to  find  tho  suspected 
Columbia,  213,  214. 

Memorial  of  Bancroft  to  the  Emperor 
William,  317,  318. 

Mexican  war  made  it  unnecessary  to 
run  Southern  boundary  of  Louisiana 
Purchase,  71,  72. 

Middleton  hindered  by  Hudson  Bay 
Company  in  seeking  the  northwest 
passage,  46. 

Military  occupation  of  Oregon  pro- 
posed, 72,  74,  76,  260,  201,  272, 
2X4. 

Mirabeau's  adroit  management  in  the 

•    Nootka  Convention,  207. 

Missionary  explorers  sent  to  Oregon, 
117,  121;  missions  opened,  122. 

"Missionary  Herald  "  on  the  Whitman 
and  Webster  interview,  230-232. 

Missionary  party  to  Oregon,  129-139. 

Mississippi,  navigation  of,  sought  by 
the  English,  .">.  i.s. 

Mississippi  River.  English  attempt  to 
secure  the  navigition  of,  55. 

Monette  on  the  English  struggle  for 
the  Ohio,  48. 

Monopoly,  a  warning  example  of,  by 
the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  102,  289. 

Monroe  Doctrine,  its  substance,  urged 
by  the  United  States,  24-26. 

Monroe  on  the  northern  limits  of 
Louisiana,  209. 

Mule,  singular  case  of  instinct,  170, 
171. 

NAPOLEON  guarantees  the  conveyance 
of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States, 
against  tho  delays  of  Spain,  •_'!.>, 
211 ;  defeated  in  his  plans  for  Louisi- 
ana, 20,  21. 

New  Caledonia,  what,  53. 

New  Englind,  idea  of  a  new  settle- 
ment, 115-117. 

New  Spain,  boundary  of,  on  the  north 
never  run,  12 ;  quality  of  her  colo- 
nists, 15,  10. 


Newspapers  in  the  ILjdson  Bay  Com- 
pany's regions,  41. 

Nootka  Convention  of  1790.  Causes  of, 
14,  15,  outline  facts  of,  205-211; 
commercial  and  not  territorial,  'KM, 
21ii,  L'-Jl  ;  abrogated  by  war  of  1796, 
207,  208 ;  commercial  articles  of, 
only  renewed  in  1814,  208 ;  impor- 
tance of,  to  the  United  States  title, 

aao-223. 

Notice,  proposed  to  close  "joint  oc- 
cupation "  of  Oregon,  274-281. 

OHIO  Company  of  1751,  and  plans  of, 

Ohk>  Company  of  Putnam,  116. 

"Old  Wagon  *'  of  Dr.  Whitman,  140- 
146. 

Oregon,  first  step  of  England  into,  35 ; 
struggle  for,  opened,  08 ;  pretense  of 
Great  Britain  to  hold,  05 ;  treaty  for 
"  joint  occupation  "  of,  68,  69 ;  con- 
gressional action  on,  72-76;  "joint 
occupation  "  extended  indefinitely, 
75 ;  fails  of  interest  in  the  old  states, 
77,  78 ;  is  opened  by  Western  men, 
79 ;  not  included  in  the  Ashburton 
Treaty,  179;  Oregon  disappointed, 
185 ;  a  common  question,  was  it 
worth  having  ?  189-204 ;  information 
scarce,  189-194 ;  traders  in,  were  not 
writers,  191  ;  Oregon  undervalued 
by  Captain  William  Sturgis,  193; 
and  by  Bentpn  and  Winthrop,  193  ; 
by  the  "Edinburgh  Review,"  194  ; 
by  McDuffie  of  South  Carolina,  195  ; 
first  congressional  action  on  for  leg- 
islation, 198  ;  some  willing  Oregon 
should  become  a  separate  nation, 
200,  201  ;  boundaries  and  area  of, 
205,  212  ;  title  of,  claimed  by  Spain, 
205;  title  of,  claimed  by  England 
through  Drake,  206:  Nootka  Con- 
vention on  titles,  207 ;  this  conven- 
tion commercial  and  not  territorial, 
207,210;  abrogated  by  war  of  1796, 
according  to  Lord  Bathurst,  207, 
208;  reaffirmed,  1814,  208;  .'hims 
of  the  United  States  from  the  Noot- 
ka Treaty,  208-210 ;  Oregon  ques- 
tion goes  under  discussion  by  the 
people,  255,  257  ;  and  by  Congress, 
256 ;  call  by  Congress  for  informa- 
tion, 25(*>,  257  ;  strong  ft-ding  against 
"joint  occupation,''  25S  ;  state  of 
the  case  December,  1845, 262 ;  popu- 
lation of,  1846, 264 ;  civil  government 
inaugurated,  205,  260,  2(18  ;  republi- 
can institutions  in  g'>r:ii,  'Ji'-S,  209; 
immigration  takes  Oregon,  263-271 ; 
war  for  Oregon  ?  a  six  month's 
question,  273 ;  eminent  debaters  on, 


360 


INDEX. 


274 ;  notices  to  close  "  joint  occupa- 
tion" passed  as  a  peace  measure, 
280,  281. 

Oregon  as  a  separate  nation,  favored 
by  Jefferson,  200,  201;  in  Boston, 
201 ;  by  Gallatin,  201. 

Oregon  Treaty,  dates  of  progress  in, 
293 :  obscurity  of,  turned  against  the 
English  writers  of  it,  293-294. 

Oregon  of  to-day,  330-352;  location, 
area,  population,  330 ;  as  compared 
with  New  England  for  human  homes, 
330,  331 ;  facilities  for  commerce, 
natural  scenery,  climate,  and  pro- 
ductions, 331-333  ;  causes  of  warm 
temperature,  334  ;  illustrated,  334 ; 
government  organized,  335;  popu- 
lation, 335  ;  Northern  Pacific  Rail- 
road  creates  a  market,  330 ;  wheat 
and  other  crops,  330 ;  amount  of 
arable  land,  330-338;  fruits  and 
vegetables,  338,  339;  timber  and 
lumber,  339 ;  navigable  waters,  ma- 
rine and  inland,  339,  340 ;  water 
power,  341, 342  ;  manufactures,  342 ; 
fisheries,  342,  343 ;  stock-raising, 
343-345 ;  sheep  and  wool,  345 ;  min- 
erals, 345 ;  inland  steam  navigation, 
345, 340 ;  Northern  Pacific  Railroad, 
340,  347  ;  immigration,  347  ;  branch 
railroads  in  Oregon  and  Washington, 
347,  348 ;  Oregon  and  California 
railroad,  348 ;  Oregon  and  New 
York  five  days  apart,  348. 

Oswald,  in  treaty  of  1783,  struggles  to 
retain  the  northwest,  31. 

"  Out  West "  in  old  colony  times,  144, 
145. 

Owen,  of  Indiana,  on  Oregon,  263,  264. 

PACIFIC  coast  and  United  States  own- 
ership, 273. 

Pacific  coast,  proposed  division  of,  be- 
tween United  States,  England,  and 
Russia,  284. 

Pakenham,  English  minister  on  the 
Oregon  Question,  arrives,  286. 

Parker,  Rev.  Samuel,  missionary  to 
Oregon,  117, 121 ;  exploring  tour  of, 
121,  122. 

Parma,  Duke  and  Duchy  of,  in  the 
retrocession  of  Louisiana  to  France, 
20. 

Pattie,  J.  O.,  and  his  travel  for  trade 
into  New  Mexico  and  Mexico,  80. 

Pelley,  Sir  John,  Governor  of  Iludson 
Bay  Company,  intercedes  for  Com- 
pany interests,  289. 

Peter  the  Great  on  the  northwest 
coast,  3,  22-26. 

Philadelphia,  Mayor  and  Mr.  Webster, 
1S4. 


Pickett,  Captain,  commanding  Amer- 
ican forces  on  San  Juan,  311. 

Pike,  Lieutenant,  and  a  "  Great  Amer- 
ican Desert,"  337. 

Pilcher,  and  his  important  tour  for 
furs,  80. 

Pitt,  the  younger,  shapes  the  Nootka 
Convention,  14. 

Plains  of  Abraham,  cost  of  battle  there 
to  France,  18, 19. 

Polk,  President,  260,  272. 

Post  Henry  established,  the  first  in 
valley  of  Columbia,  58. 

Pownall,  Governor,  letters  to  Franklin 
and  desire  to  see  American  founda- 
tions go  in,  351,  352. 

Prevost,  James  Charles,  English  Com- 
missioner to  run  the  Oregon  Treaty 
line,  297. 

Public  buildings,  the  first  in  Oregon, 
205. 

Puget  Sound  Agricultural  Company, 
42. 

Putnam,  Rufus,  and  the  Ohio  Com- 
pany, 116. 

"  QUART  of  seed  wheat,"  114-121. 

RABBITS'  Skins  sold  in  London  in  ono 
year,  43. 

Railroads,  when  opened  in  New  Eng- 
land, 143. 

Rendezvous  of  trappers  and  traders  in 
the  mountains,  135-139. 

Robinson's  account  of  Indian  govern- 
ment, 97. 

Rocky  Mountain  Fair,  135-139. 

Roman  Catholic  policy  in  withholding 
the  Bible,  109  ;  great  zeal  and  sacri- 
fice in  missions,  109 ;  no  evident 
connection  with  the  Whitman  mas- 
sacre. 324-329. 

Rosario  Straits,  300 ;  location  changed 
by  English  geographers,  301. 

Rupert's  Land,  what,  33. 

Rush,  secures  the  reoccupation  of  As- 
toria, 64 ;  on  the  Boundary  Com- 
mission of  1818,  2S3. 

Russell,  Lord  John,  307. 

Russia  in  the  New  World,  3,  22-26. 

Russian  fur  trade  in  North  America, 
22-26  ;  colony  in  California,  23-26. 

Ryswick,  Treaty  of,  1. 

SAX  JUAX  boundary,  extent,  islands, 
and  channels  of,  etc.,  299, 300 ;  Eng- 
lish finesse,  301,  302 ;  amount  of 
land  involved  in  the  San  Juan  con- 
troversy, 302 ;  time  and  labor  con- 
sumed by  the  commissioners,  303; 
de  Haro  marked  by  nature  as  "the 
channel  which  separates  the  conti- 


INDEX. 


361 


nent  from  Vancouver's  Island,"  303 ; 
was  understood  by  the  makers  of  the 
treaty  to  be  tli3  channel,  303,  304  ; 
Prevost  from  the  first  claims  Rosa- 
rio,  :KH  ;  Prevost  refuses  to  mark  by 
monument  the  point  of  contact  be- 
tween the  land  and  the  water  line, 
305  ;  labors  to  carry  that  point  fif- 
teen miles  too  far  cast,  305 ;  appar- 
ent English  scheme,  305-308  ;  San 
Juan  had  been  conveyed  to  the  Hud- 
son Bay  Company  in  violation  of 
treaty  of  "joint  occupation,"  306, 
307;  refused  absolutely  to  the  United 
States,  307 ;  English  assumption, 
308 ;  apt  reply  of  Secretary  Cass, 
308,  309 ;  work  of  the  commission- 
ers ends  suddenly  and  unsatisfacto- 
rily, 309 ;  Americans  and  English  I 
occupy  San  Juan,  310,  311  ;  civil 
conflict,  311 ;  American  and  Eng-  j 
lish  forces  near  to  fighting,  311-313 ;  I 
General  Scott  arrives  and  restores 
peace,  313,  314 ;  Minister  Lyons, 
I860,  proposes  an  arbitrator  to  inter- 
pret the  treaty,  the  King  of  the 
Netherlands,  or  of  Sweden  and  Nor- 
way, or  the  Swiss  President,  and 
Secretary  Cass  declines,  315 ;  in 
1871  the  Emperor  of  Germany  is 
made  arbitrator  and  accepts,  315, 
31G;  august  and  sad  tribunal,  316, 
317 ;  the  finality  of  the  boundary 
question  after  ninety  years,  3.19. 

Santa  Fe,  what ;  receives  Dr.  Whit- 
man, 172. 

Scott,  General,  quiets  the  San  Juan 
parties,  313-315. 

Secession,  early,  proposed,  19,  50-52. 

Selkirk  settlement,  94,  161. 

Semple,  of  Illinois,  estimate  of  emi- 
gration, 2C4. 

Settlements,  mercantile  and  civilizing 
in  contrast,  122-127. 

Settlement  of  a  country  is  more  than 
occupation,  219. 

Seward,  W.  H.,  Secretary,  anticipated 
by  Carver,  at  St.  Paul,  28. 

Seward,  W.  H.,  Secretary,  and  his 
prophesy  of  Seat  of  Empire,  28. 

Silence,  painful,  of  the  Great  Fur 
Land,  41. 

Simpson,  Sir  George,  tours  and  obser- 

.  vations  of,  153-158  ;  he  speaks  dis- 
couragingly  of  distances,  noil,  great 
deserts,  etc.,  154 ;  assumes  validity 
of  the  English  claims,  and  defies 
the  United  States  to  t-vke  possession, 
115  ;  proposes  to  divide  the  TlOMti 
parts  of  the  world  with  Russia,  156 ; 
shows  how  England  may  take  Cali- 
fornia, 157. 


Sixty  years'  struggle  of  England  for 
the  Ohio  region,  48. 

Slavery  in  English  northwest,  91,  02. 

Slocum's  Report  to  Congress  on 
slavery  in  Indian  countries,  91,  92. 

Small,  on  the  products  of  Oregon,  332. 

Spain,  in  the  New  World,  1,  5-l(i; 
shrinkage  of,  11-16;  expels  the 
English  from  West  Florida,  1779, 
49 ;  tempts  a  secession  of  the 
southwest,  51 ;  the  Nootka  Con- 
vention, 205--J11. 

Spalding,  Rev.  H.  H.,  engages  as 
missionary,  127-129  ;  misapprehends 
Webster  on  the  Oregon  question, 
229-238 ;  testimony  to  the  work  of 
Dr.  Whitman,  263. 

Spalding,  Mrs.,  heroism  of,  133. 

State  House,  a  primitive  one,  265. 

St.  Croix,  what  river  is  it  ?  54. 

St.  George,  English  name  for  Astoria, 
63-65. 

St.  Louis,  attacked  by  the  English  and 
Indians,  1780,  49,  old  centre  of  the 
fur  trade,  79. 

St.  Lusson  on  Lake  Superior,  1671, 
takes  the  northwest  for  Louis 
XI V.,  7,  8. 

Straits  of  Anian,  G,  7 ;  search  for,  27, 
28,  by  Carver,  by  Hearne,  29,  Hud- 
son Bay  Company  to  search  for, 
33  ;  neglect  of,  45;  Vancouver  in- 
structed, 299. 

Sublette  and  the  Rocky  Mountain 
Company,  80. 

TARTARY  in  New  Spain,  G. 

Testimony  for  Dr.  Whitman,  by  his 
emigrants,  246-7. 

Tecumseh  and  General  Harrison,  52, 
53. 

Texas  taken  by  the  French,  1G85-1G89. 

"  The  Divide  "  what,  132,  two  women 
open  it  for  Fre'mont,  133. 

The  trapper  and  a  civilized  woman 
again,  138. 

The  West  tardily  appreciated  by  the 
East,  60,  77,  78,  196-198,  200,  224. 

Tippecanoe,  battle  of,  52,  53. 

Trappers  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company 
everywhere,  43,  44. 

Trappers'  festival  at  Fort  Walla 
Walla,  160. 

Treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix,  Indian  boun- 
dary fixed  by,  32. 

Treaty  of  1783,  American  struggle  in, 
to  save  the  northwest,  31  ;  un- 
fortunately expressed,  180. 

Treaty  of  1794  and  English  surrender 
of  the  seven  posts,  48. 

Treaty  at  last  for  Oregon,  282-2%; 
main  article  of,  282  j  time  required 


362 


INDEX. 


to  write  it,  282  ;  steps  taken  to  run 
the  line,  297  ;  English  commissioner 
not  empowered  to  run  the  con- 
tinental part  of  the  line,  297-298, 
302,  303  ;  still  diplomacy,  298  ;  the 
treaty  without  a  map,  298,  299. 

Tuscany  exchanged  for  Louisiana,  20. 

Twiss,  Professor,  on  discovery  of  the 
Columbia,  216. 

Tyler,  President,  urges  the  settle 
ment  of  the  Oregon  question,  256  ; 
announces  negotiations  as  begun, 
260. 

UNITED  STATES,  claims  of,  to  Oregon, 
212, 223,  284  ;  tedious  settlement  of, 
through  sixty  years,  212  ;  claim  by 
prior  discovery,  213-216 ;  by  the 
Louisiana  Purchase,  216,  217;  by 
prior  explorations,  217-219 ;  by  prior 
settlements,  219,  220;  no  English 
claim  possible  between  Spanish 
ownership  and  the  American  pur- 
chase, 216,  217,  222 ;  openly  explored 
by  the  United  States  as  purchased 
property,  217,  218  ;  England  enters 
no  protest,  218 ;  explorations  con- 
tinued without  protest,  219;  the 
first  settlement  in  Oregon  was 
American,  Astor's,  219,  220;  con- 
tinous  life  of  civilization  afterward, 
220 ;  Florida  Treaty  conveyed  to 
the  United  States  all  Spain  claimed 
north  of  latitude  forty-two,  222,  223  ; 
Great  Britain  makes  important  con- 
cession, 223 ;  other  claims  of,  262  ; 
not  perfect  claim,  283  ;  as  stated  by 
J.  Q.  Adams,  285  ;  offer  of  forty-nine 
vainly  renewed  by  Mr.  Everett,  286 ; 
President  Polk  in  his  inaugural,  1845, 
asserts  the  American  claim  to  be 
"clear  and  unquestionable,"  286  ;  a 
new  offer  and  rejected  by  Minister 
Pakenham,  287  :  policy  of  "  notice" 
and  probable  war  discussed  for 

.  months,  287,  228  ;  United  States  dis- 
covers the  Hudson  Bay  Company 
as  the  real  power  in  negotiation, 
288 ;  gloomy  anxieties  of  the  peo- 
ple, 296 ;  proposal  of  arbitration 
declined,  290 ;  renewed  and  de- 
clined, 291  ;  hopes  of  settlement, 
291,  292  ;  "  notice  "  served  on  Great 
Britain,  292,  293  ;  draft  of  a  treaty 
obtained,  approved,  ratified,  and 
proclaimed,  293 ;  United  States  agree 
to  protect  the  rights  of  the  Hud- 
son Bay  Company,  and  Puget  Sound 
Agricultural  Company,  south  of 
forty-nine,  294 ;  amount  of  indem- 
nity, 295. 

Utrecht  Treaty  of  1713,  18. 


VANCOUVER  barely  fails  to  discover  the 
Columbia,  214. 

Vancouver  Island  and  deflected  bound- 
ary ofi'ered,  1826,  288:  free  ports 
on,  offered,  287  ;  offer  of  island  re- 
newed, 288. 

Vergennes,  secret  agent  of  France  to 
recover  Louisiana,  19. 

Virginia,  population  of,  1650,  6. 

WAGONS   first  taken  into  the  mount- 
ains, 79. 
Wagons    for    Oregon,    140-146:    two 

hundred,  239-254. 

War  of  1812  stimulated  by  the  Eng- 
lish through  the  Indians,  52,  53. 
War,  almost,  for  Oregon,  310-314. 
War  of  1812,  and  one  object  of,  50. 
Washington  on  danger  of  early  seces- 
sion, 51  ;   obligation  of  the  United 
States  to  divine    providence,    135; 
on  Indian  wars,  as  instigated  by  the 
English,  324,  325. 

Washington,  discontent  of,  till  he 
could  explore  the  Western  country, 
352. 

Webster,  Daniel,  offers  memorandum 
for  settling  th3  Boundary  Question, 
180, 225 ;  becomes  Secretary  of  State 
in  1841  and  proposes  negotiation, 
180,  181 ;  state  of  the  case,  181 ; 
concludes  the  treaty  in  1842  with 
Lord  Ashburton,  181,  182 ;  accumu- 
lated perplexities  of  the  case,  182 ; 
impossible  to  include  Oregon,  182 ; 
treaty  and  author  criticised,  183 ; 
delicate  and  difficult  work  in  the 
temper  of  the  times,  183-185  ;  mis- 
understood and  blamed  in  the  Ore- 
gon interest,  224 ;  did  not  indulge 
the  war  spirit,  224  :  adopted  Whit- 
man's theory  and  plan  to  save  Ore- 
gon, 225 :  omitted  Oregon  from  the 
Ashburton  theory,  as  impossible, 
22G,  227,  255 ;  made  full  claim  up  to 
forty-nine,  226;  times  not  ripe  for 
inserting  it  in  the  Ashburton  Treaty, 
226 :  Sustained  by  Calhoun,  227 : 
injustice  has  been  done  in  attribute 
ing  to  Webster  the  neglect  of  Oregon, 
228 ;  this  impression  traditional  and 
nnhistoric,  228  ;  published  by  Rev. 
H.  H.  Spalding  and  copied  by  Gray, 
Hines,  "  Missionary  Herald,"  "  At- 
lantic Monthly,"  and  "Ely  Vol- 
ume," of  the  American  Board  of 
Missions,  229-232 ;  the  published 
statements  are  contrary  to  the  offi- 
cial documents,  232-234  ;  contrary 
to  the  policy  of  the  United  States 
since  1814,  234  :  various  reasons  for 
the  error,  235-237 ;  on  war  for  Ore- 


INDEX. 


gon,  276-278,  280;  expounds  the 
Ashburton  Treaty,  278. 

Whitman,  Marcus,  M.  I).,  missionary 
to  Oregon,  117,  121  ;  exploring  tour 
of,  121,  122  ;  engages  as  missionary, 
127  ;  finds  an  associate,  127-129  ; 
his  "  Old  Wagon,"  140-146  ;  left  at 
Fort  Bois<5  temporarily,  143  ;  discov- 
ers a  project  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany, and  lays  a  plan,  102  ;  hasty 
preparation  for  a  daring  ride  to 
Washington  to  carry  intelligence, 
1G3 ;  perils  of  the  trip,  1C3 ;  his  deep 
determination,  164 ;  the  great  issues 
involved,  1G4,  165 ;  opposition  of  his 
friends  gives  way,  165 ;  ready  to 
start  in  twenty-four  hours,  1C>5, 160 ; 
general  course  of  route,  167,  168 ; 
lost  in  the  mountain  storms  and 
swimming  the  rivers,  and  arrival  at 
Santa  Fe,  168-172;  arrival  in  St. 
Louis,  174 ;  his  appearance,  175, 
176 ;  his  reception,  and  his  haste  to 
be  gone,  174-177 ;  arrival  at  Wash- 
ington, 177  ;  some  other  wonderful 
rides,  177,  178;  Ashburton  Treaty 
closed  months  before,  with  Oregon 
left  out,  179  ;  no  evidence  of  his  dis- 
satisfaction with  the  policy  of  the 
treaty,  187  ;  the  omission  of  Oregon 
created  his  opportunity,  187,  188, 
228,  237,  238,  256 ;  was  not  slighted 
at  Washington,  201,  202;  satisfied 
with  the  omission,  227  ;  gave  notice 
as  he  came  over  the  plains,  of  tak- 
ing back  emigrants,  239,  240  ;  visits 
Boston  and  is  reproved  for  leaving 
his  mission,  241 ;  suffered  for  being 
in  advance  of  the  times,  242,  243; 
great  caravan  prepares  for  Oregon, 
243;  growth  of  settlement  by  em- 
igration, 244,  245 ;  activity  of  Dr. 
Whitman  on  the  march,  245 ;  testi- 
monials, 246 ;  usual  troubles  at  Fort 
Hall,  247-249 ;  Fremont  as  an  escort, 
249,  250;  a  wide  rally  for  Oregon, 
250-252 ;  happy  arrival  of  Dr.  Whit- 
man, 253,  254 ;  report  of,  in  Congress 
a  stimuli!-.,  257,  258,  and  on  the 
country,  2(3. 

Whitman  Massacre,  320-329 ;  thirteen 
or  more  savagely  murdered,  and 
fifty  made  captive,  320 ;  English 
policy  of  occupation,  321  ;  Amer- 
ican policy  of  settlement,  321,  322  ; 
conflict  of  English  and  American 
policies,  322,  323:  Indian  view  of 
the  two  policies,  322,  323 ;  treaty  of 
1846  disappointed  and  alarmed  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company,  323 ;  massa- 


cre not  necessarily  planned  by 
whites,  324 ;  Indian  nature  sufficient 
cause,  3l!4,  325  ;  Indian  superstition 
about  medicine,  and  cases  illustra- 
tive, 325,  320;  statement  of  Brou- 
illet,  Vicar-General,  326, 327  ;  state- 
ment of  Evans,  327  ;  of  the  American 
Board,  327,  328 ;  of  Bella,  328 ;  gen- 
eral causes  operating  to  produce  the 
massacre,  328,  329. 

Westcott,  warmth  of,  on  war  for  Ore- 
gon, 'J75. 

"  Westminster  Review,"  opinions  of, 
194,  190,  267. 

Western  men  saved  the  farther  West, 
79,  198. 

Westward  movement  of  the  nation, 
144,  145 ;  not  favored  by  Jackson, 
Winthrop,  and  Webster,  199,  200. 

White,  Elijah,  government  agent, 
leads  first  emigrant  band  to  Oregon, 
190. 

Wild  animals,  different  estimates  of, 
by  the  thirteen  colonies  and  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company,  98,  99. 

William,  Emperor  of  Germany,  settles 
the  San  Juan  boundary,  in  favor  of 
the  United  States,  318,  319. 

Wilkinson,  General,  suspected  of  pro- 
moting secession  of  the  Southwest, 
51. 

Winthrop,  John,  his  theory  of  a  home, 
115,  116,  129. 

Winthrop,  Robert  C.,  warm  claims  of, 
for  Oregon,  258,  259,  against  notice 
to  close  "  joint  occupation,"  274. 

"Wolf  Meeting,"  the  beginning  of 
civil  government  in  Oregon,  265. 

Wolf  steals  Dr.  Whitman's  axe,  172. 

Womanly  heroism,  127-139. 

Women,  unworthy,  sent  to  New  World 
for  marriage,  123-125. 

Women,  white,  first  to  cross  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  121-139. 

Wyeth,  Nathaniel  J.,  and  singular 
outfit  and  excursion,  and  failure,  81- 
84. 

XAVIER,  promptness  of,  165. 

YAITCEY,  on  war  for  Oregon. 

Yazoo,  Washita,   Arkansas,  Missouri, 

and  Mississippi  explored  by  D'lber- 

ville,  10. 

ZACHREY,  one  of  Whitman's  emigrant*, 
150,  151. 

Zachrey  of  Texas  and  misrepresenta- 
tions of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company, 
150, 151. 


American  Comtnontoealtfjs, 

EDITED    BY 

HORACE   E.  SCUDDER. 


A  series  of  volumes  narrating  the  history  of  such 
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Robert  E.  Lee,"  etc. 

Oregon.  The  Struggle  for  Possession.  By  WILLIAM 
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Maryland.  By  WILLIAM  HAND  BROWNE,  Associate 
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PRESS    NOTICES. 

"VIRGINIA." 

Mr.  Cooke  has  made  a  fascinating  volume  —  one  which  it  will 
be  very  difficult  to  surpass  either  in  method  or  interest.  If  all 
the  volumes  of  the  series  ["  American  Commonwealths  "]  come 
up  to  the  level  of  this  one  —  in  interest,  in  broad  tolerance  of 
spirit,  and  in  a  thorough  comprehension  of  what  is  best  worth 
telling  —  a  very  great  service  will  have  been  done  to  the  reading 
public.  True  historic  insight  appears  through  all  these  pages, 
and  an  earnest  desire  to  do  all  parties  and  religions  perfect  jus- 
tice. The  story  of  the  settlement  of  Virginia  is  told  in  full.  .  .  . 
It  is  made  as  interesting  as  a  romance.  —  The  Critic  (New  York). 

It  need  not  be  said  that  it  is  written  in  a  fascinating  style,  and 
animated  by  a  spirit  of  strong  love  for  the  author's  native  State, 
and  pride  in  its  history.  It  should  be  said  further  that  it  brings 
out  many  an  obscure  or  forgotten  bit  of  history,  and  makes  real 
an  epoch  which  is  familiar  to  very  few.  —  New  York  Evening  Post. 

No  more  acceptable  writer  could  have  been  selected  to  tell  the 
story  of  Virginia's  history.  Mr.  Cooke  is  a  graceful  writer,  and 
thoroughly  informed  in  reference  to  his  subject. .  .  .  He  has  mas- 
tered his  subject,  and  tells  the  story  in  a  delightful  way.  —  Edu- 
cational Journal  of  Virginia  (Richmond,  Va.). 

"OREGON." 

The  long  and  interesting  story  of  the  struggle  of  five  nations 
for  the  possession  of  Oregon  is  told  in  the  graphic  and  reliable 
narrative  of  William  Barrows.  ...  A  more  fascinating  record 
has  seldom  been  written.  .  .  .  Careful  research  and  pictorial  skill 
of  narrative  commend  this  book  of  antecedent  history  to  all  inter- 
ested in  the  rapid  march  and  wonderful  development  of  our 
American  civilization  upon  the  Pacific  coast.  —  Springfield  Repub- 
lican. 

There  is  so  much  that  is  new  and  informing  to  the  reading 
world  embodied  in  this  little  volume  that  we  commend  it  with 
enthusiasm.  It  is  written  with  great  ability  and  in  a  pleasing 
style,  a  vein  of  humor  rippling  along  its  pages  and  imparting  an 
agreeable  and  appetizing  flavor  to  the  varied  descriptions.  .  .  . 
The  book  is  worthy  of  careful  perusal  by  all  who  claim  to  be 
intelligent  concerning  the  rich  and  progressive  country  beyond 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  —  Magazine  of  American  History  (New 
VorkJ. 


"  MARYLAND." 

In  the  choice  of  Mr.  William  Hand  Browne  as  an  author  for  a 
trustworthy  and  graphic  account  of  the  rise  and  development  of 
Maryland,  the  editor  of  this  valuable  series  of  historical  volumes 
has  made  a  very  strong  point.  Mr.  Browne's  familiarity  with  the 
political  and  material  development  of  the  Province  as  well  as  the 
State  has  enabled  him  to  produce  a  work  of  more  than  usual  ex- 
cellence. .  .  .  Much  that  has  been  hitherto  obscure  is  now  pre- 
sented to  the  reader  in  a  clear  light.  The  book  is  well  written 
in  simple,  straightforward,  vigorous  English,  and  is  a  substantial 
contribution  to  the  history  of  America.  —  Magazine  of  American 
History. 

In  every  way  an  admirable  and  most  useful  contribution  to 
American  history.  .  .  .  Mr.  Browne  has  done  his  work  with  rare 
skill,  thoroughness,  and  the  moderation  that  of  all  things  befits 
historical  writing.  His  narrative,  he  tells  us,  has  been  written  al- 
most entirely  "  from  the  original  manuscript  records  and  archives." 
He  has  certainly  made  the  subject  his  own,  and  the  result  is  a 
volume  of  such  interest  that  the  reader  cannot  afford  to  skip  a 
line.  —  New  York  Graphic. 

"KENTUCKY." 

Professor  Shaler  has  made  use  of  much  valuable  existing  ma- 
terial, and  by  a  patient,  discriminating,  and  judicious  choice  has 
given  us  a  complete  and  impartial  record  of  the  various  stages 
through  which  this  State  has  passed  from  its  first  settlement  to 
the  present  time.  No  one  will  read  this  story  of  the  building  of 
one  of  the  great  commonwealths  of  this  Union  without  feelings  of 
deep  interest,  and  that  the  author  has  done  his  work  well  and  im- 
partially will  be  the  general  verdict.  —  Christian  at  Work  (New 
York). 

Professor  Shaler  has  prepared  a  succinct,  well-balanced,  and 
readable  sketch  of  this  "  pioneer  Commonwealth."  Himself  a 
native  of  Kentucky,  he  writes  with  the  natural  affection  which  a 
man  of  loyal  impulses  feels  for  his  State,  and  yet  with  no  ap- 
parent bias.  .  .  .  The  volume  is  in  every  way  a  worthy  addition 
to  a  series  which  possesses  unique  value  and  interest.  —  Boston 
Journal. 

A  capital  example  of  what  a  short  State  history  should  be.  — 
Hartford  Courant. 

*#*  For  sale  by  all  Booksellers.    Sent  by   mail,  post-paid,  on  re- 
ceipt of  price  by  the  Publishers, 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO.,  BOSTON,  MASS. 


^ 


t. 


Libra  <-v 


[UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 

COLLEGE  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


Mar  156  3 

Mar2263 
.Mar2963 
\3  '70 


No»20T6 
ttCTcoLnk 


Slip-25m-9,'60(.B2«36s4)4280 


LIBRIS 

•  -    X.    KKSSI.KK 
i     Montana 


Library 


UCLA-College  Library 

F  880  B27o  1883 


L  005  657  336  3 


368     4 


